CHISINAU. Feb 3 (Interfax) -A referendum, held in the Gagauz Autonomous Region of Moldova on February 2, has been declared valid with voter turnout higher than expected, Central Election Commission Chair Valentina Lisnik told Interfax.
"More than one third of voters had cast their ballots by noon which was sufficient to declare the referendum valid. Voter turnout had surpassed 55% by 4 p.m., five hours before the polling stations 's closure. Voters are active despite freezing temperatures and snow," Lisnik said.
"The local legislature's fears two weeks ago and their decision to lower the minimal voter turnout from 50% to 33% were groundless. Voting is proceeding in an orderly manner and without incident," she said.
Two hundred and seventy-five election monitors are observing the referendum, most of them representatives of political parties and public organizations. International observers are not present.
Foreign guests have arrived, Lisnik said, among them officials with local governments in Ukraine and Russian lawmaker Roman Khudyakov of the Liberal Democratic Party's parliamentary faction. The referendum is being monitored by Moldovan opposition parties: the Party of Regions, Party of Communists and Party of Socialists, who urged voters to be as active as possible.
Sunday sees two referendums being held in Gagauzia - consultative and legislative. In the consultative referendum voters are asked to state their opinion in two ballot papers - pink, where they are to say whether or not they support Moldova's European Union drive, and green, where they are to answer whether or not they support Moldova's entry of the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
In the legislative referendum voters are to state whether or not they accept the bill on Gagauzia's deferred self-determination status, allowing the people of Gagauzia to exercise their right to self-determination if Moldova's status as an independent state is altered.
The voting is being monitored by 275 observers, most of them representatives of political parties and public organizations. International observers are not present.
The local central election commission has officially registered a group of Russian monitors from the CIS-EMO nongovernmental organization. A bus carrying election monitors was allegedly stopped at the Mayaki-Palanca customs checkpoint on its way from Odesa and the group was reportedly denied entry into Moldova.
But the Moldovan border service did not confirm those reported, while the Gagauz election commission claimed that the observes had reached the point of destination and were working at polling stations.
Well-known Gagauz public organizations Piligrim-Demo refused to monitor the referendum, saying that the referendum is illegal. But representatives of Moldova's opposition parties - Party of Regions, Party of Communists and Party of Socialists, are doing their job and they have urged voters to be as active as possible.
The Moldovan government deems the referendum "unlawful," arguing that the Gagauz authorities have no right to influence the country's foreign policy, Interfax earlier reported.
Moldovan parliament Speaker Igor Corman said on Saturday that "opposition political forces are using Gagauzia to upset political stability in Moldova in the year of parliamentary elections. But, he said, "the referendum cannot have any legal consequences." "Following the government's inquiry, a court qualified the referendum as illegitimate and banned it," he said.
In the wake of the court ruling the Moldovan authorities froze the bank accounts intended for the referendum. Formuzal turned to the people to raise the money needed and ethnic Russia businessman Yury Yakubov provided about $70,000
Gagauzia has a population of about 150,000, 80% of whom are Gagauz, the only Turkic ethnic group in Europe professing the Orthodox Christian religious. Gagauzia proclaimed independence two weeks earlier than Transdniestria did, on August 19, 1990. Units of Moldovan nationalists attempted to put down the rebellion, but unlike in Transdniestria, there was no bloodshed. The Moldovan parliament ruled in December 1994 to set up an autonomous Gagauz region with a special legal status.