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On March 16, Gaguzians went to the polls to elect a new Popular Assembly for the autonomous region within Moldova. “Generally, the first round of elections took place according to the legislation, except a few issues noted by our observers,” said Paul Strutzescu, the chairman of the League for Defense of Human Rights in Moldova (LADOM), an election-monitoring NGO supported by Eurasia Foundation with financial support from he U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the OSCE Mission to Moldova, and the Balkan Trust for Democracy. 

LADOM’s report revealed the monitoring results from March 11^th-16^th. Around 140 short-term observers received accreditation from Gaguzia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) in the capital city of Comrat. Observers monitored all 62 polling stations opened on Election Day to ensure secret ballots and free expression of the voters' will. However, some polling stations were too small and some ballot boxes too transparent, jeopardizing the secrecy of voting.  

Despite overall successful free and fair elections with 64 percent voter turnout, LADOM reported campaign violations including less than transparent campaign finance sources and expenditures, discrepancies in campaign conditions for some candidates and lack of training for some election officials. LADOM’s second report describes these violations in detail. If not remedied during the second round, they may dramatically affect the integrity of the overall electoral process, according to LADOM. 

The local CEC followed legislation and collaborated well with the involved NGOs to organize the election, increasing civil society’s participation in the democratic process. The CEC registered 161 candidates, six of whom bowed out of the contest during the campaign period. On Election Day, 77 independent candidates and 78 candidates representing different political parties ran for office.