BISHKEK, MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — With less than five months to go before a presidential election Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted to impose restrictions on election observers.
NGOs and democracy activists immediately criticised amendments to the election laws as authoritarian but its proponents said it was a necessary step to improve and streamline the voting process.
The row focused on the scrapping of two paragraphs from the election code which had stated that election monitors had the right to move around polling stations and flag up potential violations.
Dinara Oshurahunova, who works at the Kyrgyz NGO Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society said monitors needed to move around during voting to operate effectively.
“There are nearly 2,300 polling stations, and usually we are able to send 500 to 600 independent observers, and public observers,” she told The Bulletin’s Bishkek correspondent.
“They have to cover more than one station in a day.”
Western election monitors have often held up Kyrgyzstan as an example of democracy in former Soviet Central Asia, but supporters of the election law changes said monitors needed to be restricted because they were often funded by foreign governments and there was a risk they would influence elections.
Kyrgyz vote on Oct. 15 in a presidential election that promises to be a tightly fought affair. President Almazbek Atambayev is stepping down after a single term in office, as stipulated by the constitution. His Social Democratic Party has put up PM Sooronbay Jeenbekov to be its candidate. He will face at least two other former PMs in the vote.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
