The yesterday’s Appeal to boycott the September 5 referendum [on changing the current presidential election procedure so as to come back to a direct election of the head of state] was adopted by fewer than a half of the Gagauzia Popular Assembly members. Therefore the document may not be regarded as legal, stated Assembly Deputy Speaker Elena Kovalenko.
The website of the autonomous region’s largest United Gagauzia movement quoted her as saying that the publication of this Appeal, “prepared in Chisinau political corridors, was of a vital importance for the Communists, so they have fabricated this phony paper despite the absence of a necessary quorum.
Kovalenko said the Popular Assembly will come back to consideration of this document in the nearest future and will give its appropriate assessment of it.
She expressed dissatisfaction that Assembly Speaker Anna Harlamenko, a Social Democratic Party member, has been making unfounded statements on the forum’s behalf lately. For example, Harlamenko said recently that the September 5 referendum may aggravate the human-right situation in Gagauzia. Kovalenko called upon Anna Harlamenko to stop making such far-reaching statements so as to not stir up frictions and conflicts in the PA deputy corps.
Elena Kovalenko presumes, “this verbal casuistry was invented by the ideologists of the Communist Party, which is continuing its destructive activities seeking to dismiss even reasonable proposals on overcoming the political crisis”.
“Regretfully, the head of Gagauzia’s legislative forum has let drag herself into the camp of Moldovan deadlock advocates. The chief question – how we should be electing president of Moldova – is only soluble by giving this right to the people. For this, we all should take an active part in the forthcoming referendum”, maintains Elena Kovalenko.