MINELRES: Moldova news: Elections in Gagauzia

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Original sender: Marina Berbec <berbecm@yahoo.com>


* REPEATED ELECTIONS IN GAGAUZIA SHOULD BE BOYCOTTED - EX-AMBASSADOR

The most correct decision for the Gagauzian people now would be to
boycott the October 20 repeated election of Gagauzia governor, former
Moldovan Ambassador to Turkey Mr. Fedor Angheli said in his interview
with INFOTAG.

"A considerable part of Gagauzia residents did not go to the polls on
October 6 quite consciously", the diplomat said. "Thus they expressed
their protest against the rough policy of pressure on the autonomy's
title nation being waged by President Vladimir Voronin and his
surrounding from among parliament deputies who are ethnic Gagauzes by
origin".

Mr. Fedor Angheli, who is a Gagauz himself, presumes the pressure is
designed to split Gagauzes in order to prevent the autonomy's becoming a
subject in the would-be federative state of Moldova.

"The past 2 years after the Moldovan parliamentary election, in which
the ruling [Communist] party harvested over 80 percent of Gagauzia's
votes, have demonstrated an extreme danger of what the current Moldovan
authorities are doing in Gagauzia, and their inability to consolidate
the Moldovan society or the State", the ex-ambassador said.

In his words, Vladimir Voronin has not fulfilled even a single of his
promises given to Gagauzes. "The President has deliberately provoked a
split among the Gagauzia population to divide them into genuine
Bolsheviks and anti-Bolsheviks", he said.

"The October 6 early governor election was held in an atmosphere of
psychological pressure on voters", Fedor Angheli said. He refrained from
forecasting the repeated election returns, and urged the 4 rivals of the
Communist candidate to call their electorates to boycott the October 20
voting.