Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan braces for landmark poll

agencies

Saturday, October 09, 2010

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BISHKEK: Kyrgyz parties on Friday made a final push for votes in tightly-fought elections aimed at creating Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy despite fears of a resurgence of violence.

Vans plastered with political slogans toured the streets of the capital Bishkek in heavy rain, urging voters through loudspeakers to cast their ballots Sunday for the stability of the troubled ex-Soviet state. Kyrgyzstan — voting under a new constitution implemented after the toppling of president Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April — is hoping the poll will end a year of political and ethnic violence that pushed it to the brink of collapse.

The risk of a resurgence on unrest was underlined Wednesday when an angry crowd stormed the Bishkek office of virulently nationalist party Ata-Zhurt, setting piles of its election literature ablaze. President Roza Otunbayeva, who came to power after the toppling of Bakiyev, has rejected calls for the polls to be postponed but acknowledged that the tightest security will be in place Sunday.

“We have not only the police but every part of the law enforcement agencies mobilised,” she said this week. “This isn’t some kind of ordinary situation. It’s a critical situation.” With a whole new political system in place and opinion polls unreliable, the future make-up of the Zhogorku Kenesh parliament remains uncertain but with up to six parties likely to win seats post-election bartering seems inevitable.

A pair of pro-Otunbayeva centre-left parties — Ata-Meken and the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) — are expected to figure prominently but not win a majority, according to recent opinion polls. A possible upset could come from the Ar-Namys party led by ex-prime minister Felix Kulov, seen as a favourite of the Kremlin.

Kulov, a law and order man whose prominent campaign posters refer to him as the iron shield of the law, has promised to overturn the new constitution and reinstate the type of strong presidential system favoured by Moscow. Ata-Zhurt has also made a strong showing, especially in the country’s deeply divided southern regions where clashes between ethnic-majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks left hundreds dead in June.

As well as the raid on its offices, the party has also alleged dirty tricks over a video purportedly showing its leader Kamchybek Tashiyev vowing to bring Bakiyev back to power, which it said was a fabrication. The US embassy said it was “disturbed” by the storming of the party’s headquarters earlier this week, saying it condemned all forms of violence in connection with the elections.

There are 120 seats available in the newly empowered Zhogorku Kenesh, with parties needing to break a 5 percent threshold in order to win mandates. Some 2.8 million of the country’s 5 million population are eligible to choose between the total of 29 parties. (daily times)