The National Assembly intends to appeal to the Constitutional Court
The decision to prepare the appeal was made by members of the People’s Assembly during a session on Friday, according to Gagauzinfo.
According to Gheorghe Leichu, vice speaker of the Gagauz People’s Assembly, the idea of filing the petition had been discussed for some time, but only now, in the deputies’ view, have the necessary legal grounds emerged to submit the request to the Constitutional Court.
According to him, the People’s Assembly intends to challenge a number of provisions of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Moldova, which, as the autonomy believes, affect Gagauzia’s powers in the area of organizing elections, including the status of the autonomy’s central electoral body.
The document is scheduled to be signed by the new chairman of the People’s Assembly, Valentin Gaidarji, and submitted to the Constitutional Court in the coming days.
The new speaker called for a resolution to the impasse
On the same day, deputies elected Valentin Gaidarzhi as chairman of the People’s Assembly. Eighteen of the 33 deputies participated in the vote, and all ballots cast were in favor of his candidacy.
After his election, Gaidarji stated that relations between Comrat and Chisinau remain tense today and expressed hope that they would normalize.
“I believe that, working together with all the deputies, we will resolve this situation so that our residents can go to the polls. I did not come here for a salary or a seat. I came as a son of the Gagauz people, with blood boiling in my veins, to resolve the issues of the Gagauz people,” Gagauzinfo quotes the newly elected speaker as saying.
According to him, cooperation between deputies at both levels of government should help resolve the impasse so that residents of the autonomous region can participate in elections for local authorities.
The position of chairman of the People’s Assembly had been vacant since the end of last year following the resignation of Dmitry Konstantinov.
The organization of elections is at the heart of the dispute
The conflict between the Gagauz Autonomous Region has been ongoing for nearly two years, and disagreements over the conduct of elections to the People’s Assembly have become a “sticking point.”
Following the adoption of the Republic of Moldova’s new Electoral Code in 2022, differing interpretations arose between Comrat and Chisinau regarding the autonomy’s authority to organize regional elections.
The People’s Assembly had previously set the election date twice and approved the composition of the Central Election Commission of Gagauzia; however, these decisions were suspended by the courts following appeals by the State Chancellery. The substantive review of the State Chancellery’s complaint has not yet been completed.
At the same time, the Ministry of Justice filed a request with the Constitutional Court to review a number of provisions in the legislation governing the autonomy’s special legal status.
A Political and Legal CompromiseIs Needed
Alexandru Tănase, former Minister of Finance and former head of Moldova’s Constitutional Court, stated during a television broadcast that the root of the problem lies in Gagauzia and that the autonomous region’s authorities are obligated to bring their legislation into line with changes adopted at the national level.
“We must live by the law and comply with its provisions. If Parliament has adopted a new Electoral Code that defines the names and powers of electoral bodies differently, we cannot keep the old names just because that’s what the guys want,” Alexander Tănase believes.
Fyodor Gagauz, a former member of the Moldovan Parliament and one of the drafters of the legislation on Gagauzia’s autonomy, has entered into a debate with him. He believes that the current crisis arose after the adoption of the new Electoral Code, whose provisions, in his view, conflict with the Law “On the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia.”
Fyodor Gagauz’s Opinion
Here is his opinion, posted on his social media page.
“Alexandru Tănase rightly called the 1994 compromise a shared asset of the Moldovan and Gagauz peoples that must be preserved. However, in assessing the causes of the crisis, Tănase strayed from the legal essence of the matter. He stated that the Gagauz National Assembly must bring regional legislation into line with the country’s Electoral Code. In effect, this would mean the autonomous region relinquishing its authority to form its own Central Election Commission and hold elections for Gagauzia’s governing bodies.
The GAG approved the CEC and scheduled elections first for March 22, then for June 21. The State Chancellery twice secured their suspension through the courts, and the GAG’s complaint has still not been considered within the statutory time limits. But for some reason, Tenas did not mention this.
The truth is that the crisis surrounding the elections was artificially created by the central authorities. The seeds of this crisis were sown in 2022, when Parliament adopted Moldova’s new Electoral Code, certain provisions of which contradict the region’s powers as guaranteed by the Law on the Status of Gagauzia.
The Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia is a special organic law. Together with Article 111 of the Constitution, it protects autonomy and takes precedence over general provisions. The national code, however, undermines the status of the Gagauzia CEC, and Parliament must rectify this. This is all the more important given that the Gagauzia Electoral Code was developed with the participation of the Council of Europe and complies with the recommendations of the Venice Commission.
To unblock the elections, it is sufficient to agree on the status and oversight of the chair and secretary of the Gagauzia CEC and to apply the campaign spending cap established by the CEC of Moldova. These are technical details that can easily be resolved at the negotiating table, and this is what the deputies from Comrat and Chisinau should be working on.
Tenasă was right when he said: the stronger party must be the wiser one. The central government is obligated to guarantee the autonomy’s powers, not to revoke them through the Constitutional Court in circumvention of the law. Such a course of action harms the country, weakens social unity, and undermines citizens’ trust in the state.”
What Will the Constitutional Court Decide?
The upcoming decisions of the Constitutional Court could prove decisive for future relations between the central government and the Gagauz Autonomous Region.
The opinions of two legal experts indicate that the situation in Gagauzia, by and large, boils down to a dispute over the Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia and its place in Moldova’s legislative hierarchy.
Fedor Gagauz points out that when the special law establishing the Gagauz autonomy was adopted, it incorporated a principle stipulating that all other Moldovan laws must be brought into compliance with it.
Alexandru Tănase takes the opposite position—namely, that it is Gagauzia’s legislation that must be brought into line with the new Electoral Code adopted in 2022.
The content of the Constitutional Court’s upcoming rulings will determine not only whether elections to the People’s Assembly can be held, but also the practical application of the Law “On the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia,” which has served as the foundation for the autonomy’s functioning within the Republic of Moldova since 1994.
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