Moldova's Constitutional Court has ruled that elections in Gagauzia will be organized by Chisinau

Moldova’s Constitutional Court issued a ruling in the case regarding Gagauzia’s powers, upholding the position of the Ministry of Justice; as a result, the autonomous region will not be able to form its own elected body.

According to the publication Nokta, elections will be conducted by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova.

The court also ruled unconstitutional the provisions that allowed the People’s Assembly of the autonomous region to participate in the appointment of heads of the local police, the regional office of the Information and Security Service, and the justice department.

The defense’s argument that these restrictions violate the constitutional guarantees of the autonomy’s special status was rejected. Consequently, control over law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, and electoral processes in the region now passes entirely to the central government in Chisinau. The Constitutional Court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed.

In September 2025, Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyimposed sanctions against a number of Moldovan politicians who had repeatedly expressed pro-Russian views, such as Gagauzia’s BashkanYevgenia Hutsul, whom a Chisinau court found guilty in August of complicity in the illegal financing of the pro-Russian “Shor” party andsentencedher to seven years of imprisonment in a semi-closed correctional colony for women. 

Evgenia Gutsul actively participated in the systematic smuggling of unreportedfunds into Moldova, which originated from an organized criminal group, primarily from the Russian Federation, by means of air and ground trips (round-trip within 24 hours). At the same time, Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions against a politician from the group of Moldovan oligarchVictoria Furtune, who had declared her intention to return Budzhak—a historical and geographical region in the south of modern-day Odesa Oblast—to Moldova.

Кирило Бойко