2023 Gagauz gubernatorial election

The 2023 Gagauz gubernatorial election was held on 30 April and 14 May 2023 on the territory of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, part of the Republic of Moldova. The position of Governor (Başkan) of Gagauzia represents one of the highest positions in the autonomy, also having the position of a member of the Government of the Republic of Moldova ex officio.

2023 Gagauz gubernatorial election

← 2019 30 April 2023 (first round) 14 May 2023 (second round)

Candidate Evghenia Guțul Grigorii Uzun Party ȘOR Independent Popular vote 27,374 24,926 Percentage 52.34% 47.66%

Başkan before election Irina Vlah Independent Elected Başkan Evghenia Guțul ȘOR

Background

Gagauzia's autonomy is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and regulated by the Gagauz Autonomy Act of 1994.^[1] Irina Vlah was elected on 22 March 2015 as the Başkan of Gagauzia and won her second mandate in 2019. She is no longer eligible for a third term.

Gagauzia is an autonomous region under the constitutional control of the Chișinău authorities

Following the statements by which Irina Vlah admitted that the official language of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian, PSRM leader Igor Dodon announced that the socialists are withdrawing their support for the governor of Gagauzia.^[2] Irina Vlah is an ex-officio member of the government of the Republic of Moldova throughout her mandate, being a member of the cabinets of Chiril Gaburici (2015), Valeriu Streleț (2015–2016), Pavel Filip (2016–2019), Maia Sandu (2019), Ion Chicu (2019–2021), Natalia Gavrilița (2021–2023) and Dorin Recean (2023–present).

Candidates

In the 2023 election, eight candidates registered, including one party member and seven independent candidates:^[3]

Candidate	Political party		Positions held	Endorsed by	Ref.
Nicolai Dudoglo [ro]		Independent	Member of the Moldovan Parliament (2014–2018) Mayor of Comrat (2004–2014)		[4]
Grigorii Uzun		Independent	Member of the Moldovan Parliament (2021)	Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) Igor Dodon, 5th President of Moldova (2016–2020)	[4]
Mihail Formuzal		Independent	Governor of Gagauzia (2006–2015)	Victor Petrioglu, OP mayor of Vulcănești	[3]
Victor Petrov		Independent	Member of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia (since 2021)	Vasile Bolea, Member of the Moldovan Parliament for BCS	[3]
Dumitru Croitor [ro]		Independent	Ambassador to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan (since 2019) Governor of Gagauzia (1999–2002)		[3]
Serghei Cernev		Independent	Member of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia		[3]
Evghenia Guțul		Șor Party	No previous offices	Șor Party	[3]
Serghei Cimpoieș		Independent	Member of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia (since 2021)		[3]

Opinion polls

Dates conducted	Polling firm	Sample size	Petrov Ind.	Guțul ȘOR	Uzun Ind.	Dudoglo [ro] Ind.	Formuzal Ind.	Croitor [ro] Ind.	Cimpoieș Ind.	Cernev Ind.	Lead
14 May 2023 (2nd round)	CEC	–	–	52.3	47.7	–					4.6
30 Apr 2023 (1st round)	CEC	–	16.2	26.5	26.4	9.0	3.5	10.4	5.7	2.3	0.1
30 Apr 2023	Intellect Group-SPERO	984	22	16	24	8	6	16	2	1	2
18–23 Apr 2023	iData	1,023	12.7	18.3	20.5	11.1	10.4	15.2	8.3	3.5	2.2
12–20 Apr 2023	Başkan Elections 2023	2,060	46	18	14	7	5	4	4	2	28
28 Mar – 3 Apr 2023	Başkan Elections 2023	1,050	55	—	16	11	10	6	—	2	39

Results

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Evghenia Guțul	Șor Party	14,890	26.47	27,374	52.34
	Grigorii Uzun	Independent	14,849	26.40	24,926	47.66
	Victor Petrov	Independent	9,133	16.24
	Dumitru Croitor [ro]	Independent	5,825	10.35
	Nicolai Dudoglo [ro]	Independent	5,059	8.99
	Serghei Cimpoieș	Independent	3,228	5.74
	Mihail Formuzal	Independent	1,969	3.50
	Serghei Cernev	Independent	1,301	2.31
Total			56,254	100.00	52,300	100.00
Valid votes			56,254	98.51	52,300	97.44
Invalid/blank votes			853	1.49	1,376	2.56
Total votes			57,107	100.00	53,676	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			92,563	61.70	92,558	57.99
Source: Central Electoral Commission – First round, Data, Second round, Data

Controversies

Some sectors of the Romanian press criticised the fact that all the candidates were pro-Russian, anti-Romanian and Eurosceptic.^{[5][6][better source needed][7][better source needed]}