Representatives of the public association “Piligrim-Demo” call on the local authorities to adopt the law to amend and supplement a number of local legislative acts of ATU Gagauzia that is generically called the “Law on Transparency”. To promote the given bill, the members of the NGO on October 3 launched an advocacy campaign that will include a series of local and national events, meetings with deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia and field trips to collect signatures in support of the bill.

In a news conference at IPN, “Piligrim-Demo” executive director Mihail Sirkeli said the bill was drafted in April 2016 by a working group that involved local and national experts and local deputies, on the initiative of “Piligrim-Demo”. According to him, the necessity of such a law drives from the conclusions of a number of polls carried out by the Association the previous years. These showed that most of the respondents are not informed about the decisions taken by the authorities, but they want to know more about the work of the authorities and to take part in the decision-making process. The proposal was registered with the People’s Assembly by deputy Ecaterina Jecova at the end of this July.

Mihail Sirkeli said that when the “Law on Transparency” is adopted, the people will have more confidence in the authorities because they will see more openness on their part. Also, the people would have a guaranteed right to take part in the decision-making process. The legal framework of Gagauzia would be adjusted to the national one. “By this proposal, we want to create particular conditions in Gagauzia so that the provisions of the national legislation are applied uniformly,” he stated.

The campaign “Transparent power is more credible” will start on October 3 and will continue until the “Law on Transparency” is adopted by the People’s Assembly of ATU Gagauzia. The campaign is carried out by “Piligrim-Demo” with support from the Freedom House.