Gagauz Legislative Elections Go Well

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHISINAU 000295 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/UMB, DRL/AE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KDEM MD SUBJECT: Gagauz Legislative Elections Go Well REF: Chisinau 0174 Sensitive but Unclassified. Please Protect Accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: With international observers and a strong American contingent watching widely and carefully, March 16 elections for the 161 candidates contesting 35 positions in the Gagauz autonomous region's People's Assembly proceeded for the most part without incident. Problems that did occur were relatively minor and included a shortage of ballots at a few polling stations, showboating local mayors, apathetic human-rights observers, and some inconsistencies in applying the rules. Monday-morning results showed that 17 of the 35 contests will go to runoff elections on March 30. End summary. Numbers and Procedures on a Sunny Spring Day -------------- ¶2. (SBU) A sunny spring day and wide interest in elections helped boost the turnout to 64.8% of registered voters. The voting lists at the beginning of the day contained 85,121 names; 6,615 voters not on the lists who could prove residence in a constituency were added to the rolls during polling hours. In the 18 constituencies where candidates won outright with 50 percent of the vote or more, Communist Party candidates and Communist-supporting independents won six seats, and independents supporting Governor Formuzal won four. True independents succeeded in five districts. The Democratic Party (PD) gained two seats, and Ravnopravie gained one. (The last three may declare themselves as supporters of Formuzal, according to Formuzal, who predicted that he would get a working coalition in the People's Assembly.) A total of 77 international observers, including 16 U.S. Embassy staff in eight deployments, and teams from the Turkish and Polish embassies, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and several NGOs, ensured that every polling station was visited at least once. We visited 56 of the 62 in operation. A Busy, Long Day for Mostly Professional Poll Staff -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Overall, monitors expressed a positive view of the professionalism of polling staff, who began the day by observing empty, clear-plastic ballot boxes before polls opened at 0700, and ended it by supervising the count after polls closed at 2100 hours. During the long hours of voting, registration staff checked off voters against lists, added voters not on the list who could prove residence, and generally observed the rule that only citizens with valid official identification-even if it was a worn-looking Soviet passport-were allowed to vote. The U.S. teams observed several incidents in which hopeful voters were turned away for lack of proper official identification, even though they were well known to the poll-station registrars. The strict-constructionist approach was on display in one small town where officials ruled, in accordance with the law, that a mobile ballot box could not be taken to a voter who was hospitalized a few kilometers outside of Gagauzia. ¶4. (SBU) Some of the problems we observed were relatively minor, such as floor-length curtains in the voting booths, which could hide more than one voter. However, we did note that poll workers for the most part were assiduous in enforcing the one-voter-at-a-time rule. In voting places, we observed several voters who were given ballots, even though they lacked official papers. (Note: International observers have divided opinions on this practice, some praising it for its inclusionist, enfranchising approach, and others saying that the law must be obeyed strictly. End note.) In several places, voters complained that their ballots fluttered open after being dropped into the meter-high transparent ballot box, thus potentially compromising the secrecy of the ballot. (Note: Voters are supposed to fold their ballots four ways, but rarely did so. End note.) ¶5. (SBU) More serious problems included candidates lingering in or at the entrance to the voting areas, one instance of a poll worker electioneering outside a polling station, and the occasional presence of a policeman outside the building (usually a school or cultural center) where voting took place. One policeman said he was guarding the entrance to prevent the opposition (i.e., non-Communists) from bribing voters. Several mayors were observed gladhanding and schmoozing in polling rooms, but observers assessed that behavior more as an attention-getting device than as an attempt to sway voters. Mostly university-aged observers from the NGO LADOM (the League for the Protection of Human Rights),who had been trained and deployed to every polling station by the Eurasia Foundation, often seemed apathetic, and content merely to watch events from across the room. In a few high-turnout constituencies, too few ballots were printed to handle the influx of overseas workers, including 98 who hired buses to drive in from Moscow. The law allows the printing of ballots to accommodate only 101 percent of the listed voters. CHISINAU 00000295 002 OF 002 ¶6. (SBU) The most visible problem, which the Central Election Commission publicly condemned, was a radio statement by Formuzal, who, in addition to anodyne comments urging people to go to the polls and carry identification, also encouraged voters to elect a People's Assembly that would cooperate with the executive. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: Overall, it is clear that citizens knew their voting rights, and exercised them freely and at a commendable turnout level. The fact that we and the rest of the international community were watching no doubt limited problems so that the great majority of the people, almost all of the time, could exercise their electoral rights. (Note: We will not be issuing a public statement. End note.) With barely half the contests decided in the first round, we will be there again on March 30, to encourage Gagauzia in particular, and Moldova in general, to continue to observe good campaign and electoral practices. Kirby