Bruce Pannier, an expert on Central Asia and Senior Correspondent at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, believes that whoever gets seats in the next parliament, Kyrgyzstan will not alter its position with Russian Federation.
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Results given by the Central Electoral Commission show that the SDPK, founded by Atambayev, garnered 27 percent of the vote. “The goal of the president and the government when they hold fair elections is a fair vote count, so that all votes given to this or that party were fairly counted, so that there would be no ballot stuffing”.
Other parties include Ata-Meken, Bir Bol and Respublika-Ata-Jurt, all of which feature former prime ministers on their party lists and are openly loyal to Moscow.
It means that the parliament’s new composition will see three new parties: the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, Ata Zjurt and Ata-Meken parties already present in the parliament will be joined by Kyrgyzstan, Onuguu-Progress and Bir Bol political parties.
Sunday’s polls were the country’s second parliamentary election since 2010.
Voters had received their ballot papers only after undergoing an electronic fingerprint check. The contest was “competitive and technological” and “set a bold example [for Central Asia] that has been hailed by organizers as a historic turning point for the nation”, EurasiaNet writes in a commentary.
A total of 2,761,297 people have gained final qualification for voters and more than 55 percent of them participated in the parliamentary elections.
However, “the election is broadly expected to return a mandate for continuity that a few fear may leave the country unprepared for troubles ahead”, EurasiaNet writes.
Sunday’s elections were monitored by more than 600 worldwide observers. These risks are “exacerbated by leadership failure to address major economic and political problems, including corruption and excessive Kyrgyz nationalism”. “Poverty is high, social services are in decline, and the economy depends on remittances from labor migrants”, the ICG said.
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Polling stations closed, while counting of the votes has begun in the country.
