The elections for the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, scheduled for March 22, 2026, will not take place after legal obstacles blocked the electoral process. According to rupor.md, authorities could not start candidate registration on January 21, and the regional electoral body officially announced that it cannot organize the vote.
A decision by the Supreme Court of Justice caused the deadlock. The court upheld a request from the State Chancellery and suspended the decisions adopted by the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia on December 16, 2025, which established the electoral body. The dispute emerged over the institution’s name. National legislation uses the term Central Electoral Council, while authorities in Comrat approved the body as the Central Electoral Commission, citing the 1994 Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia.
Alexandr Tarnavschi, a member of the People’s Assembly, told rupor.md that the parliamentary majority refused to change a single word in the institution’s name, which pushed the autonomy into a legal impasse and disrupted the electoral calendar. He said that the suspension of the decisions and the failure to meet the legally required 60 day timeframe make elections on March 22 impossible.
To resolve the situation and restart the process, the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia plans to hold a new session, adopt a new set of decisions, set a new election date, and bring the name of the electoral body into line with national legislation.
On January 12, the People’s Assembly approved funding for the electoral body to prepare the elections. At the same time, the State Chancellery office in Comrat recommended changing the institution’s name to Central Electoral Council, but local deputies chose to keep the current name.