Kyrgyz interim President Roza Otunbayeva was to meet with representatives of foreign observer missions yesterday after voters overwhelmingly backed a new constitution in a controversial referendum.
More than 90 percent of voters in Sunday’s poll backed the new charter that would set up ex-Soviet Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy, according to preliminary results based on more than 99 percent of electoral districts.
But opposition leaders said the figures were impossibly high given the fallout from this month’s ethnic violence that killed hundreds.
Just 8 percent voted against, on the back of a mass turnout of 69.5 percent, the results indicate.
The vote was hailed as a “victory” by Otunbayeva, who came to power in April amid riots that ousted former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Not everyone agrees.
“I highly doubt that the central election commission’s data reflects the real picture,” said Adakhan Madumarov, leader of the Batun Kyrgyzstan party.
Liberal former interior minister and chief of the Ata-Zhurt opposition party Omurbek Suvanaliyev called the figures “fantastical” and accused the interim government of “massive falsification” in the registration of voters.
However, fear of further conflict and fatigue from the violence seemed to be major factors driving the unexpectedly high turnout.
“Almost everyone voted because without legitimacy there is no government and because they want peace and stability,” said Raikhan Samidinova, an ethnic Kyrgyz musician in Osh.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) praised the interim government for its handling of the vote, despite evidence of “shortcomings.”
Meanwhile, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said yesterday that violence in Kyrgyzstan could stir ethnic tension in Central Asia and encourage crime.
“Chaos and destabilization in the region play into the hands of criminals engaged in the illegal trade of drugs, arms and human trafficking,” he said.
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