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DE RUEHCH #0295/01 0771529
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R 171529Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY CHISINAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6436
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

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