The five political parties that won seats in Kyrgyzstan’s new parliament have agreed to a vote recount, a party official said yesterday, after concerns about irregularities and protests from losing party supporters.
Kyrgyzstan is trying to build the first parliamentary democracy in a Central Asian region dominated by post-Soviet strongmen, only four months after hundreds of people were killed in ethnic violence and six months after a revolt toppled the president.
Akylbek Zhaparov, a leader of the third-placed Ar-Namys party, said there was uncertainty around the number of votes cast in Sunday’s election to lead Kyrgyzstan out of two decades of authoritarian rule.
The recount could admit a sixth party to the parliament that will assume more power than the president.
Divisions among the parties mean tough talks lie ahead to form a coalition government. None of the successful parties scored more than 9 percent of the vote and a three-party coalition would be required to command a majority of the 120 seats.
More than 60 percent of voters in the election cast ballots for 24 parties that failed to secure seats.
Underscoring the potential for violence among voters of some of the parties that lost out, up to 1,000 Butun Kyrgyzstan supporters rallied on Tuesday in Osh, scene of the worst ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan’s modern history, saying the vote was rigged.
Zhaparov told a news conference in Bishkek that results of the recount would be known in one or two days and did not rule out that the Butun Kyrgyzstan party, which came sixth in the poll, could win parliamentary seats.
On Tuesday, the party that narrowly topped the poll called for a broad coalition to avert political chaos and hinted it may try to reverse reforms that stripped powers from the presidency.
Zhaparov said the five winning parties had agreed there could be irregularities over the number of people who voted. He said the 2.85 million voters previously announced appeared to have swollen by nearly 200,000 people to more than 3 million.
“The main condition for this election to be recognized by the people of Kyrgyzstan is its honesty,” Zhaparov said. “We understand that the places of the parties that passed into parliament may change now.
“All the parties understand this, and have agreed to this,” he said.
Adakhan Madumarov, leader of Butun Kyrgyzstan, said he was confident that his party had passed the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament. The initial count showed his party had 4.8 percent of the vote.
“Where did those 200,000 additional votes come from?” he said.
Ar-Namys, led by former prime minister Felix Kulov, came third in the election after campaigning on the basis of close ties with Russia. It won 7.7 percent of the vote to become one of five parties to cross the threshold to enter parliament.
The narrow winner was Ata Zhurt, a Kyrgyz nationalist party whose membership includes many former colleagues of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in the April revolt. It won 8.8 percent of the vote.
“For our country to be united and not to collapse, and in order to stop recriminations, we should create a single and broad coalition with all the parties,” Ata Zhurt leader Kamchibek Tashiyev told a news conference on Tuesday.
Tashiyev said he was ready to cooperate with Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva, a proponent of the switch to parliamentary rule, but that the nation was not yet mature enough for democracy and needed “a strong state power”.
The Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan finished second, with 8 percent. Respublika was fourth with 7.2 percent and Ata Meken fifth with 5.6 percent. Officials from these parties were not immediately available for comment.
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