+ Start with some good background info, courtesty of Radio Azattyk:
+ More deep background and longer article, only for the really curious:
+ President Bakiev publicly declares he will allow no "destabilization" efforts during the elections. I.E., any protest of the results will be seen as a coup attempt, and treated accordingly:
+ A good look at what happens inside the polling stations, and what the official party line of the incumbents Ak Jol party members is:
+ According to Kyrgyz law, more than 50% of registered voters must vote for any election to be valid. That seems unreasonable in a country of such vast low-population areas, and general political apathy. But consider that in Bishkek, a city of over 1 million residents, there are only 338,000 registered voters (and a full 221 polling places for them to vote).
Here is the vote figure by Noon: http://eng.24.kg/politic/2009/07/23/8597.html
+ Bakiev has been very forward about allowing Western Election Observers into the country this year, but the Central Election Committee (hereafter CEC) still keeps a tight rein on exactly which Western observers make it through. The Helsinki Committee (a respected OSCE affiliate) just learned today that they have been denied: http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/5042.html
+ This is Really interesting. The perception of Bakiev as an almost-all-powerful autocrat lead many to speculate that shortly after his re-election, we would see parliament pass an amendment changing the 2-term limit set in the Kyrgyz constitution. But not so, says Bakiev himself, on the day of voting: http://eng.24.kg/politic/2009/07/23/8596.html
+ Then there's this - according to the Bishkek Election Committee (state org), opposition campaigners are demanding to check voter's passports at polling stations. This type of ID-checking is illegal for non-authorized (state) officers to request. So, just to be clear, the first accusation of voter fraud actually goes against the oppositon: http://eng.24.kg/politic/2009/07/23/8598.html
So far today, I've visited a few polling places, and everything seems to be genial. Citizens come and go on lunch breaks, and it's all very casual. There is no intimidation at the polls, nor even a very strong police presence (contrary to the predictions of veteran democray agents here). But I'm only seeing downtown Bishkek, which is guaranteed to be the whitest of the white gloves in this process.
I'm heading back out now - don't expect too many more updates. This isn't Iran, I'm not much of a journalist, and I don't even know what you call Twitter-bytes (there is some controversy).
But I'll do what I can to share with you the (potentially) interesting developments of this generally uneventful day in Kyrgyz politics.
Weber (on the lamb)
No comments:
Post a Comment