A Flawed Exercise in Democracy Seen

The closely watched parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan were marred by widespread vote buying, pressure to support pro-government candidates and cases of multiple voting, yet still provided many voters with a “genuine choice,” international election observers said Monday.

But with only about a third of the seats having clear-cut winners, the makeup of the new parliament won’t be determined until a runoff election March 13, officials said.

The election for 75 seats in the nation’s new unicameral parliament is widely seen as a barometer of whether Kyrgyzstan later this year can achieve a peaceful and democratic transition of power after 15 years under President Askar A. Akayev. The 60-year-old head of state is prohibited from seeking another term, although if he wins solid backing in the new parliament he could push through a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run again.

Opposition leaders said prohibitions on candidate registration and media reporting and incidents of government pressure throughout the campaign marred the election even before Sunday’s balloting, for which turnout was 61%.

“The entire campaign was accompanied by an outrage of lawlessness which did not stop even on the day of voting: Money and free alcohol were being distributed among voters even on election day,” said Roza Otunbayeva, a former Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States who was disqualified after filing to run against the president’s daughter, Bermet Akayeva.

Akayeva won twice as many votes as her nearest challenger but did not top the 50% mark needed to avoid the runoff election. Her brother, Aidar Akayev, won handily in his district with 80% of the vote.

Voters in the central district of Kochkor, where two popular candidates were disqualified, succeeded in invalidating the election by casting more than 65% of their ballots against all candidates, and that race will be run anew in the runoff.

Edil Baisalov, chairman of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, said a privately commissioned exit poll in about 10% of the nation’s districts largely coincided with official tabulations. But the preelection violations were such that “we cannot call this election honest or fair,” he said.

“We are expecting now for the American administration to walk its talk in pushing for democracy,” Baisalov said. “There needs to be a strong response from Washington to the behavior [Akayev] allowed himself last week [in moving to silence an opposition newspaper and the local broadcast of Radio Liberty], to really send a strong signal that it is unacceptable that these very rude things were done not only to democracy, but also to bilateral relations.”

In an earlier interview, Akayev’s deputy chief of staff said a new elections code had been adopted. For the first time, the balloting featured, at U.S. urging, the marking of voters’ fingers with ink to prevent multiple voting.

“We must say that Kyrgyzstan did its best to see that these elections are held in a democratic way -- that the elections are open, transparent, fully just and in full accordance with the constitution and the laws of Kyrgyzstan, so the entire process will meet international requirements,” he said.

Kyrgyz officials were critical of U.S. Ambassador Stephen M. Young’s recent comments in the local press implying that if the election did not meet democratic standards, relations with the U.S. would be impaired. The U.S. maintains a military base in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, as does Russia.

“Such statements by the head of a diplomatic mission of a friendly nation are inadmissible ... and [are] an attempt to interfere in internal affairs of the country,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A team of observers for the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States noted minor problems with the conduct of the election but no serious violations. But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which deployed a large observation team along with the European Parliament, said the balloting “fell short of