Tag Archives: election

Azerbaijan gears up for parliamentary election

OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is gearing up for a parliamentary election this Sunday, a vote tarnished by the withdrawal of Europe’s main democracy monitoring group and by accusations of a clampdown on human rights.

Relations between the West and Azerbaijan have been increasingly strained this year over Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s crackdown on the media and opposition activists. The West has accused him of holding human rights in scant regard; Mr Aliyev has responded by accusing the West of trying to plot a coup.

And in the build up to the election, the row continued to be played out in public.

Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, said civil rights in Azerbaijan were operating under a dark cloud.

“Human rights activists, journalists and national electoral observers have been muzzled using repressive legislation, jailed on trumped-up charges or forced to escape into exile,” he wrote in an opinion article for politico.eu. “Under these circumstances, it is impossible to hold any meaningful debate about the election or to ensure its accountability.”

ODHIR, the organisation that runs Europe’s main vote monitoring operation withdrew its team from Azerbaijan’s election because it said that the Azerbaijani authorities had only agreed to allow it to send half the monitors it needed.

European vote monitors have never judged an election in Azerbaijan to be free and fair and the 125- member parliament is generally viewed as a rubber-stamping operation for President Aliyev.

In 2010, Mr Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaijan party won 72 seats. Independent MPs, who mainly supported Yeni Azerbaijan won 48 seats, giving Mr Aliyev a massive majority.

More of the same is expected on Sunday.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

SDK wins Kyrgyz election

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan released official results for its Oct. 4 parliamentary election that cemented the Social Democrat’s (SDK) grip on power. The SDK, the party of President Almazbek Atambayev, won 38 seats, up from 26 in 2010. Second was Respublika-Ata Jurt with 28 seats. The Kyrgyzstan party won 18 seats, Onuugu- Progress 13 seats, Bir Bol 12 seats and Ata-Meken 11 seats.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Kyrgyzstan elections disappoints many

BISHKEK/Kyrgyzstan, OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Parliamentary elections in Kyrygzstan on Oct. 4 may be being lauded around the world as a great success for democracy in a region normally more closely associated with dictatorship and the rule of the autocrat but in some circles the gloom is palpable.

And its many of Bishkek’s Western-oriented youth who are the most pessimistic. This was the group that rebelled most strongly against the edict that to register to vote you had to hand over your biometric data to the authorities.

Many decided that it was better to safeguard your personal data and lose the vote.

Sitting in a university canteen in Bishkek, a group discussed the election. None of them had voted and none of them regretted this.

“I do not regret that I did not go to elections because I knew who would win, it was the same people and parties as in the 2010 elections,” said 23-year old Syrgak Arkabayev, a student.

He also said that he would not submit his biometric data ahead of the 2016 presidential elections either.

And he’s not alone. An estimate said that up to a third of Kyrgyzstan’s population had also decided not to file their biometric data to the authorities. They said that the authorities can’t be trusted to safeguard the data.

But in any case, and this undermines the argument that democracy in Kyrgyzstan is in rude health, the dissenters said that there had been little motivation to vote in the election.

“I don’t think elections can change something in Kyrgyzstan,” said Gulzat Matisakova, 24.

Meerim Batyrkanova, 23, who helped an OSCE team to observe elections in Balykchy, a town on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul told a Bulletin correspondent that she was disappointed with the preliminary list of deputies who won seats at the election.

“Mostly, there are the same faces of deputies, ministers and state officials in the list,” she said. “There will be no big changes in politics.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: This was a successful election for Kyrgyz democracy

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Oct. 4, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary election marked by significant improvements in the country’s democratic development.

The elections have demonstrated the viability of Kyrgyzstan’s constitution adopted in 2010 that delegated more powers to the parliament and prevents the emergence of autocratic political power. Six political parties out of a total of 14 were able to pass the national and regional threshold, adding an important element of political plurality.

The elections are significant for three main reasons.

First, despite earlier skepticism, the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK), led by President Almazbek Atambayev gained only an estimated 38 seats out of total 120. This demonstrates that the president was unable to gain wide support despite his overwhelming influence over state media and the public sector.

Along with SDPK, the new parliament includes Respublika- Ata-Jurt bloc, Kyrgyzstan, Onuguu, Bir Bol and Ata-Meken parties.

Second, competing political parties tried to arrange their party lists to ensure both popularity and professionalism of their top members. As a result, the new parliament will include a greater number of powerful individuals better able to articulate their respective parties’ agendas. Greater professionalism in parliament can in turn boost the quality of political debates.

Finally, despite multiple cases of election fraud at voting booths and controversy surrounding a rushed collection of biometric data ahead of the elections, the electoral process was a progression towards greater transparency and accountability among political parties.

The government actively tried to eliminate fraud, while parties reported their campaign spending.

Televised debates featured representatives of competing parties who sought to distinguish themselves with creative policy solutions to pressing issues.

The new parliament will inevitably have a strong minority coalition either led by Respublika- Ata-Jurt block or will be composed of smaller parties aligning against SDPK.

But regardless of who will end up in the ruling coalition, the process of coalition formation is likely to be highly contentious and fraught with difficulties.

By Erica Marat, Assistant Professor at the College of International Security Affairs of the National Defense University, Washington DC

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Kyrgyzstan elections receive praise

OCT. 4 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — At a parliamentary election, Kyrgyzstan held what observers said was the most democratic and transparent vote in Central Asia’s post-Soviet history.

The Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, the party of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, won the elections with 27% of the vote, taking 38 seats out of parliament’s total of 120. This is an increase on the 2010 election when the Social Democrats won 28 seats.

The Central Election Committee said that of the 14 established parties at the election, six won more than a 7% share of the vote and would enter parliament.

Other than some technical issues with equipment designed to read some people’s identification, Western vote monitors from Europe’s OSCE passed off the election as broadly democratic and fair.

“Voting was assessed positively in 95% of polling station observed, it was orderly and well organised in the large majority of polling stations observed, and only relatively minor technical problems with the voter identification equipment and ballot scanners were reported,” the OSCE said in a statement.

And ordinary Kyrgyz took much pride in the Western monitors’ democratic assessment of the election.

Cholpon Dzhaparkulova, a 22- year resident of Bishkek, said: “Compared to other Central Asian and post-Soviet countries, elections in Kyrgyzstan went fairly and transparently.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

European monitors applaud parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan

OCT. 5 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Observers from Europe’s main election watchdog the OSCE said that parliamentary elections on Oct. 4 were “unique” in post-Soviet Central Asia.

At a press conference the day after the election, Ignacio Sánchez Amor, head of the short-term OSCE observer mission said: “These lively and competitive elections were unique in this region as, until 8 o’clock last night, nobody knew what the composition of the parliament would be.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Council of Europe says to send monitors to Azerbaijani election

SEPT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said it would send an election monitoring team to Azerbaijan despite concerns over its human rights record.

There had been a growing expectation that PACE might follow its bigger European vote monitoring team at the OSCE’s ODHIR and cancel its planned mission to cover parliamentary elections on Nov. 1 in Azerbaijan.

But PACE has a softer reputation than ODIHR and has, in the past, been accused of turning a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s crackdowns on civil society. This year, though, it has vocally challenged the Azerbaijani president to improve human rights.

And Anne Brasseur, head of the Strasbourg-based assembly, confirmed that PACE would send a mission as part of its commitment to monitor democracy in the former Soviet Union.

“We decided to maintain the mission to Azerbaijan knowing that the human rights situation is not really good,” media quote Ms Brasseur as saying.

“We are going to observe several elections — elections in Ukraine, in Turkey, in Belarus, in Kyrgyzstan, and we are also going up observe the elections in Azerbaijan.”

Earlier this month ODIHR pulled out of covering Azerbaijan’s election after, it said, the government had halved its quota of observers. Its withdrawal pushed Europe-Azerbaijan relations — strained over the imprisonment of Azerbaijani activists and journalists — to a new low.

And without the ODHIR’s presence, Ms Brasseur said, Europe would not be able to make a full analysis on veracity of the Nov. 1 election. ODHIR had wanted to send 30 long- term monitors and 350 short-monitors to cover the election. By contrast, PACE’s deployment is far smaller.

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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

Frustrations build ahead of Kyrgyzstan’s election

OCT. 2 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — By the standards of Kyrgyzstan’s febrile politics, the build up to its Oct. 4 parliamentary election has been calm but an often disinterested public and frustration over biometric data requirements have tarnished the vote.

Five years ago, in the aftermath of a revolution that ousted the unpopular Kurmanbek Bakiyev and the switch to a parliamentary democracy, it was a very different story. The mood was positive.

Now, ordinary Kyrgyz say that the political elite have gripped the political process making it less transparent and more self-serving.

“I am disappointed in representativeness of political parties, there are no parties for which I can vote,” said 23-year old Atabek, a student.

His friend, Temirlan, agreed.

“I wont go as there is no party in which I could be confident,” he said. As well as the usual complaints over the quality of the candidates, controversy has focused on requirements set out by the Kyrgyz Central Election Committee which insisted that people had to submit various personal data to the authorities before they could vote. Roughly a third of the population failed to register for the vote.

Still, some voters are upbeat.

Jenish, a 45-year-old taxi driver waiting for clients in a main Bishkek street said: “I will go to elections to fulfil my civic duty.”

Another Bishkek resident, 32-year old Mira, was excited about voting.

“I will vote for a party where a leader is a young and successful businessman,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

OSCE/ODHIR pressures Azerbaijan

SEPT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has come under increased international pressure to allow more monitors from the OSCE’s ODHIR into the country to monitor a parliamentary election in November. The OSCE cancelled its monitoring mission because it said the authorities in Azerbaijan had permitted only half the requested monitors.

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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Azerbaijan’s first lady wants to be MP

SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mehriban Aliyeva, wife of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, has registered as a candidate in parliamentary elections on Nov. 1, media reported. Ms Aliyeva has not previously shown any political inclination.

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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)