The Die Is Cast: Comrat Deputies Elected New Members of GRT’s OC, Despite the Risk of Being “Bogged Down in Trials”

The People’s Assembly (PA) in Comrat has elected new members of the Observers’ Council (OC) of the regional public company Teleradio Gagauzia (GRT) with 18 votes. Some deputies left the room, considering the decision illegal as long as the former members of the OC, formerly dismissed by the PA, challenged their dismissal in court.

The initiative to appoint new members to the OC of GRT was suggested at the previous meetings of the PA, but, for unknown reasons, it was postponed. Some of the candidates that had entered the contest eventually withdrew, and others had filed their applications for participation under pressure.

At the meeting held on March 30, some deputies said they still considered the appointment of the new OC to be illegal. Deputy Serghei Cimpoies claimed that the People’s Assembly would be “bogged down” in trials because of this decision, and that it would demonstrate the “incompetence” of the deputies as a whole.

According to Cimpoies, the station’s broadcast schedule should be set in such a way that all the deputies and members of the Executive Committee could participate freely in programs. Currently, the deputy says, GRT’s newscasts favor the Gagauz Bashkan Irina Vlah.

Local deputy and former GRT president Ecaterina Jecova reminded the People’s Assembly that the Gagauz bashkan had previously refused to sign a draft law that aimed to regulate the activity of the regional public television more effectively. It was prepared by a group of deputies and was intended to depoliticize GRT and to provide the financial resources necessary for the existence of this station in the Gagauz autonomy’s budget.

PA President Vladimir Kissa said that the deputies were right when they voted for the new members of the OC because the court did not cancel the decision on the resignation of former OC members and thus recognized the lawfulness of that PA decision.

The nine new members of the OC are: Ivan Terzi, Maria Uzun, Tatiana Mitioglo, Andrei Mihailov, Andrei Romanov, Ludmila Moga, Iurii Osevatiuk, Nicolai Slavutkii, and Igor Ianak.

According to Nokta.md regional portal, some of the elected candidates are members of the Novaia Gagauzia Movement: Maria Uzun is the president of the women’s organization of the Novaia Gagauzia Movement, Ludmila Moga is her deputy, Andrei Mihailov is the coordinator of the movement, Igor Ianak is the coordinator of the movement in Tomai locality, and Andrei Romanov is the deputy chairman of the Novaia Gagauzia youth organization.

Media-azi had previously written about the local experts’ opinions that GRT is one of the most popular local televisions in Gagauzia and that all the resignations and new appointments in the Observers’ Council are the obvious results of internal struggles among the essential political powers in the region – the Gagauz Bashkan Irina Vlah, whose opinions are voiced out by GRT, and Nicolae Dudoglo, who intends to take control of television in the context of the forthcoming elections.