Kyrgyzstan Results- Round 2

News is starting to trickle in from the remote Kyrgyzstan about results from the second round of parliamentary voting that was held yesterday. From the New York Times:

This Central Asian republic on Sunday held the most fractious elections in its post-Soviet history, marked by protests and accusations of fraud.

Let the politicking begin! The second round of elections for the Kyrgyzstan Parliament occurred without major incident or signs of violence. Today the international CIS observers found

…the second round of parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan legitimate, free and transparent, Asan Kozhakov, the head of the CIS monitoring mission, said in Bishkek on Monday. (This is the same international group that supported the first round and found those elections to be fair.)

The CIS observers sided with the current government and accused the Opposition of “illegal tactics”:

…the second round of the elections had been held in the republic against the background of the aggravating situation in some parts of the republic. They expressed concern over illegal actions of some participants in the election campaign who had organized protests demanding a review of the voting results of the first round. In particular, protesters in Jalalabad and Uzgen seized the offices of state administrations.

At the same time, observers approved the Kyrgyz authorities who, at this turbulent period, “demonstrated support, competence and willingness to do all it takes to provide franchise and freedom of citizens.”

From the same article published in Novosti- The Russian News and Information Agency:

The Kyrgyz central election commission has found the outcome of the elections legitimate.

This was also the first group to report out in the first round of voting on February 27th.

The Associated Press has a different assessment on the second round results:

President Askar Akayev won an overwhelmingly loyal Parliament in runoff elections in Kyrgyzstan, according to results Monday. The opposition said the vote was riddled with abuses.

The election leaves Akayev in a strong position to extend his 15-year rule as his opponents fear he will try to do. With more than 90 percent of votes counted, election officials said opposition candidates had won only four of the 43 seats at stake in the second round Sunday.

But only 12 seats were contested by opposition candidates, who won just two of the 32 seats filled when voters first went to the polls Feb. 27. That gives the opposition just six of the total 75 seats.

Opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who plans to run for president, was trailing in his district by 24 percentage points, election officials said.

Akayev’s daughter, Bermet, won a comfortable victory in the runoff. His son, Aidar, had won a seat in the first round.

Complaints are coming in of massive election abuses:

The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) sent 60 observers to monitor the runoffs and planned to give its initial assessment later Monday. This group of foreign officials found the first round of voting flawed.

Opposition candidates said abuses were worse in the runoff balloting.

“This is the dirtiest election I’ve seen,” said Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, a disqualified opposition candidate.

Opposition Ata Meken party leader Omurbek Tekebayev, who won in Sunday’s runoffs, accused authorities of “all the traditional breaches, like vote buying and intimidation of voters.”

Edil Baisalov, head of the coalition of civic groups For Democracy and Civil Society which monitored the vote, said the runoffs were worse than the first round and marred by open and widespread vote buying and obstruction of election observers. He said voters were bused in to some polling stations.

One district has voted for “None of the Above”:

According to the tentative data of Kyrgyzstani election commission, by the morning of March 14 reelections had been held in 39 electoral districts. In the Tonsk electoral district number 75 elections did not take place – 67.15% voted negatively all candidates.

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