Parliamentary elections fall short of international standards

Sunday's parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, while more competitive than previous polls, fell short of international standards, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday. "These elections were more competitive than previous ones, but sadly they were undermined by vote buying, de-registration of candidates, interference with the media and a worryingly low confidence in judicial and electoral institutions on the part of voters and candidates," Kimmo Kiljunen, head of the OSCE parliamentary assembly delegation and coordinator of the OSCE observers, said at a media conference in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. According to the preliminary results from the Central Election Committee (CEC), voter turnout was almost 60 percent - 4.6 percent lower than the previous parliamentary elections in 2000. Nearly 2,650,000 people cast their ballots. Some 390 candidates ran in the campaign for seats in the new parliament consisting of 75 members elected in single-mandate constituencies. But as of Monday, only 31 candidates had secured their seats, suggesting that in 44 constituencies there would be run-off polls on 13 March. The OSCE observers visited over 650 polling stations throughout the country on election day. Although the polls were conducted in a generally orderly manner, there were a few cases of overcrowding and long queues, the OSCE said. "Observers assessed the voting and counting as poor or very poor in a notable 11 percent of polling stations visited, which is higher than we expected," Francesco Enrico Speroni, head of the delegation of the European Parliament, said. The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in a statement on preliminary findings and conclusions that the main problems were inaccurate voter lists, unauthorised persons in polling stations and family voting. There were also incidents of vote buying, pressure on voters and multiple voting. Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj, head of OSCE/ODIHR long-term mission, urged the Kyrgyz authorities to rectify some of the shortcomings in time for the second round of polling. "We call on them to halt the de-registration of candidates on minor technical grounds, to refrain from interference with the media and not to make further inflammatory statements accusing their opponents of extremism. These are steps that can be taken immediately and would greatly improve the second round," Kopaj said. Kyrgyzstan's previous parliamentary polls in 2000 were deemed neither free nor fair by international observers.