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Kyrgyzstan goes to polls as vote-buying fears rise
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Oct 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Kyrgyzstan’s
parliamentary election got underway Sunday with electors and smaller
parties afraid vote buying will spoil a rare competitive election in
former Soviet Central Asia.
Voting across the country began at 0200 GMT and will conclude at
1400 GMT, with the first results expected late on Sunday.
Surrounded by authoritarian states with rubber-stamp legislatures,
elections in mountainous Kyrgyzstan offer a colourful and sometimes
unpredictable contrast.
Yet with the coronavirus pandemic battering paltry incomes, many
observers are warning that the stage is set for massive ballot fraud
by well-resourced parties.
Aisuluu Alybayeva, a 34-year-old teacher in the capital Bishkek,
told AFP she hoped the parties that made it into parliament would not
be the same ones “buying people”, whose votes sometimes cost as little
as $25, according to reports.
The pandemic that saw new cases and deaths peak in July in
Kyrgyzstan showed voters “how (officials) work,” Alybayeva said.
“When the pandemic hit, our lawmakers took their (scheduled)
holiday. I personally took offence.”
– Rift over Russia –
Of sixteen parties competing, two are almost certain to take seats
in the 120-member legislature.
The Birimdik (Unity) party is viewed as loyal to President
Sooronbai Jeenbekov and includes the president’s brother and former
parliamentary speaker Asylbek Jeenbekov among its candidates.
Its main rival, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan (My Homeland Kyrgyzstan), is
associated with the powerful Matraimov family, whose figurehead
Rayimbek Matraimov — a former Customs Service official — was the
target of anti-corruption protests last year.
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Both parties have spoken in favour of further integration with the
Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union bloc, which has raised the status
of hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz migrants working in Russia since
Kyrgyzstan joined in 2015.
But Birimdik’s party chairman Marat Amankulov sparked indignation
after comments emerged from last year of him saying it was “time to
return” to Moscow’s fold.
Rivals accused him of undervaluing Kyrgyz independence.
In a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Monday,
Jeenbekov warned of “forces” that wanted to “drive a wedge into the
(Kyrgyz-Russian) alliance” — an apparent reference to a
pro-sovereignty rally held in opposition to Amankulov’s comments in
the capital Bishkek last Sunday.
On Friday, the state prosecutor said it was investigating a video
widely distributed on messaging apps.
The video, which showed two male students from a top university
secretly filmed in a hotel room, appeared to imply that opposition
parties were supportive of homosexuality, which is deeply frowned on
in the conservative country.
The opposition parties targeted said this was an attempt to smear
them ahead of the vote.
The state prosecutor is also investigating accusations that one
party bribed voters with sacks of coal, the office said.
– Political drama –
Revolutions unseating two authoritarian presidents in the space of
five years were seen as the driving force behind a fresh constitution
to curb authoritarian excess and contain political in-fighting in
2010.
Electoral laws dictate that no one party can take more than 65
seats in the 120-member legislature.
Presidents are limited to a single six-year term — a departure
from the strongman trend seen in neighbours China, Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Jeenbekov will be hoping for a cooperative parliament as he plans
for life after his term ends in 2023, knowing that his own predecessor
and former protege Almazbek Atambayev is currently languishing in
jail.
Tensions between the pair grew following Jeenbekov’s electoral
victory in 2017, peaking last year with a shootout at Atambayev’s
residence between the former president’s armed supporters and state
security forces trying to arrest him.
Atambayev was detained on charges of illegally releasing a crime
boss from jail and jailed for 11 years in June.
He has also been charged in the murder of a special forces officer
who died during the raid.
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