Elections to the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia Disrupted

The elections to the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia (PAG), scheduled for 22 March 2026, will not take place. The electoral process has been blocked. Today, 21 January, candidate registration was supposed to begin, but the Central Election Commission of the autonomous region officially announced that it would be impossible to hold the vote, writes rupor.md. The basis for halting the process was the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, which granted the State Chancellery’s request and suspended the effect of PAG Decrees No. 501 and No. 502 of 16 December 2025. These documents concerned the formation of the electoral body. The legal conflict arose over the name of the structure: national legislation requires the use of the term “Central Electoral Council”, while in Comrat, referring to the 1994 Law on Special Legal Status, the composition of the “Central Electoral Commission” was approved. The court emphasized that the new Electoral Code (2022) integrated the electoral body of Gagauzia into the national system precisely as a “Council”. PAG deputy Alexandru Tarnavschi explained that due to the fundamental refusal of the majority of deputies to change a single word in the name, the autonomy found itself in a legal impasse, and the election campaign schedule was disrupted.