The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) informs about the conditions for participation as a candidate for the position of Governor of Gagauzia in the regional elections on November 15, 2026.

According to legal provisions, a citizen of the Republic of Moldova with voting rights who, including on the day of the elections, has reached the age of 35, has resided or resides in the territory of the autonomous territorial unit of Gagauzia for a period of no less than 10 years, knows the Gagauz and Romanian languages, and is not subject to the restrictions regarding the exercise of electoral rights provided in art. 16 para. (2) of the Electoral Code no. 325/2022 can be elected to the position of Governor of Gagauzia. The Governor of Gagauzia is elected by universal, equal, direct, secret, and freely expressed vote for a term of 4 years.

The right to nominate candidates for the position of Governor of Gagauzia is held by:

• political parties that have the right to participate in elections, based on the data provided by the Public Services Agency, registered until the date of entry into force of the CEC decision regarding the establishment of the election date for the position of Governor of Gagauzia;

• electoral blocs, constituted and registered in accordance with electoral legislation;

• citizens of the Republic of Moldova who submit their own candidacy independently of political parties and electoral blocs and who, starting from 70 days before the election day, have not held the status of a member of a political party and have not publicly declared their support for a political party.

Political parties and electoral blocs may nominate as candidates individuals who, starting from 70 days before the election day, meet the conditions for independent candidates and have not held the status of a member of another political party than the one that nominates them or, in the case of the electoral bloc, than the constituent political parties of that bloc.

In the case of political parties and electoral blocs, the nomination of the candidate is carried out by the authorized bodies in this regard, in accordance with statutory provisions or, as the case may be, with the agreement of the establishment of the electoral bloc. The decision regarding the nomination of the candidate is confirmed by the minutes of the meeting of the competent body or by an extract from it, accompanied by the documents provided by electoral legislation.

In the case of independent candidates, they must be supported by at least 1% of the number of voters registered in the electoral lists from the ATU Gagauzia, but not less than 1,500 persons from at least half of the number of localities of the autonomy. By exception, in the case of female candidates, the support of at least 0.5% of the number of voters from ATU Gagauzia is required, but not less than 750 persons from at least half of the number of localities in the region.

When determining the number of localities, the first-level administrative-territorial units of ATU Gagauzia in which at least 40 signatures have been collected are taken into account. At the same time, the maximum number of signatures of supporters that can be submitted for verification cannot exceed by more than 50% the minimum number required.

The documents for the registration of candidates, both those nominated by political parties or electoral blocs and independent candidates, are submitted to the Central Electoral Council of Gagauzia. These are examined within a maximum of 7 days from the date of receipt, after which the decision regarding the registration or refusal of the candidate's registration is adopted.

The specifics of the nomination and registration of candidates for the position of Governor of Gagauzia can be found in the CEC Regulation on the nomination and registration of candidates for the elections for the position of Governor of Gagauzia, approved by CEC Decision no. 4730/2026, available on the official website of the Commission https://cec.md, in the "Normative Framework" section, "Regulations" compartment or by directly accessing the link: https://shorturl.at/sQL5m.

More information can be consulted on the official website of the Commission, in the "Regional elections of 15.11.2026" section or on the page of the Central Electoral Council of Gagauzia https://cece.cec.md/ro/regions/uta-gagauzia.

This text was translated using machine translation using AI translator based on OPENAI