Țăranu: Chisinau Has to Accept Guțul and Appoint Her to Government

Relations between Chisinau and Comrat will become more complicated after the transfer of Gagauzia's Bașkan mandate to a representative of the former Șor party, Evghenia Guțul. This is the forecast given by experts. They also highlight the fact that the new Bașkan swearing-in ceremony was not attended by any central authorities’ representatives, radiomoldova.md reports. Political scientist Anatol Țăranu believes that for the moment, the authorities in Chisinau will have to accept the situation and carry out the necessary procedures, such as issuing the decree appointing Evghenia Guțul a Government member. However, he notes that the situation is still evolving, as the competent authorities are checking the Bașkan elections integrity. “We are yet to await the results of the election’s validity investigation. As far as we know, this investigation is ongoing. There is also a statement by Moldova’s acting General Attorney, who said that if the cases of violating the electoral legislation through bribing voters and other actions are registered and proved, the Bașkan’s election results might be annulled and re-elections held ,” Anatol Țăranu said. Local journalist Mihail Sirkeli does not believe in good cooperation between the Government and the new Bașkan. At the same time, he highlighted the pomp that accompanied Evghenia Guțul Bașkan inauguration on Wednesday. “For two years she has been shouting that people will die of hunger, cold and so on, and now she organizes such an event, invites and spends I don't know how many millions of lei. All the expenses they met, including Turkish actors invitation - cost a lot. This money could have been spent much more efficiently,” the journalist said. The authorities complained about irregularities and fraud at the Bașkan election. The National Anti-Corruption Center and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office raided representatives of Evghenia Guțul’s headquarters alleging bribing the votes. After the run-off on 14 May, officers also raided the offices of the Electoral Council and the Comrat Court, where they collected envelopes with voter lists. The Central Election Commission later stated that there were reasonable suspicions that deceased or living abroad people had been registered as votes. The Central Election Commission opened eight offence cases for illegal financing of election contestants who received donations from individuals exceeding the maximum limit set by law for monetary donations.