Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary election yesterday got under way, with electors and smaller parties afraid that vote-buying would spoil a rare competitive election in former Soviet Central Asia.
Surrounded by authoritarian states with rubber-stamp legislatures, elections in mountainous Kyrgyzstan offer a colorful and sometimes unpredictable contrast.
Yet with the COVID-19 pandemic battering paltry incomes, many observers have warned that the stage was set for massive ballot fraud by well-resourced parties.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Aisuluu Alybayeva, a 34-year-old teacher in the capital, Bishkek, told reporters that she hoped the parties that made it into parliament would not be the same ones “buying people,” whose votes sometimes cost as little as US$25, according to reports.
The pandemic that saw new cases and deaths peak in July in Kyrgyzstan showed voters “how [officials] work,” Alybayeva said. “When the pandemic hit, our lawmakers took their [scheduled] holiday. I personally took offense.”
Of 16 parties competing, two were almost certain to take seats in the 120-member legislature.
The Birimdik (Unity) party is viewed as loyal to Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, and included the president’s brother and former parliamentary speaker Asylbek Jeenbekov among its candidates.
Its main rival, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan (“My Homeland Kyrgyzstan”), is associated with the powerful Matraimov family, whose figurehead Rayimbek Matraimov — a former customs service official — was the target of anti-corruption protests last year.
Both parties have spoken in favor of further integration with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, which has raised the status of hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz migrants working in Russia since Kyrgyzstan joined in 2015.
However, Birimdik chairman Marat Amankulov sparked indignation after comments emerged from last year of him saying that it was “time to return” to Moscow’s fold.
Rivals accused him of undervaluing Kyrgyz independence.
In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Monday last week, Jeenbekov warned of “forces” that wanted to “drive a wedge into the [Kyrgyz-Russian] alliance” — an apparent reference to a pro-sovereignty rally held in opposition to Amankulov’s comments in Bishkek the day before.
On Friday, the state prosecutors’ office said that it was investigating a video widely distributed on messaging apps.
The video, which showed two male students from a top university secretly filmed in a hotel room, appeared to imply that opposition parties were supportive of homosexuality, which is deeply frowned upon in the conservative country.
The opposition parties targeted said this was an attempt to smear them ahead of the vote.
The office is also investigating accusations that one party bribed voters with sacks of coal, it said.
Revolutions unseating two authoritarian presidents in the space of five years were seen as the driving force behind a fresh constitution to curb authoritarian excess and contain political infighting in 2010.
Electoral laws dictate that no one party can take more than 65 seats in the 120-member legislature.
Presidents are limited to a single six-year term — a departure from the authoritarian trend seen in neighbors China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Jeenbekov would be hoping for a cooperative parliament as he plans for life after his term ends in 2023, knowing that his predecessor and former protege, former Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev, is languishing in jail.
Tensions between the pair grew following Jeenbekov’s electoral victory in 2017, peaking last year with a shootout at Atambayev’s residence between the former president’s armed supporters and state security forces trying to arrest him.
Atambayev was detained on charges of illegally releasing a crime boss from jail and jailed for 11 years in June.
He used to preside over Latin America’s largest country and its 214 million people. Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro now lives in a small Florida town and eats alone in a fast-food restaurant. Bolsonaro, 67, has found an unusual refuge in the US, where he arrived in late December last year, several days before his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia in an attempt to overturn the election victory of his rival, Brazilain President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. At home, Bolsonaro is being investigated over his alleged involvement in the unrest, which he denies. From the lavish presidential palace, Bolsonaro, a political
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) yesterday unveiled a promotion campaign that would include 500,000 free flights to lure back visitors, businesses and investors to the financial hub after more than three years of tough COVID-19 curbs. The “Hello Hong Kong” campaign was launched with dancers and flashing neon lights in the territory’s main convention center, next to its famous harbor, with a backdrop bearing the slogan in various languages including Russian and Spanish. Lee, speaking in English, said the campaign would show that the territory was open for tourism, and was aimed at boosting business and investment in the Chinese
There could be some relief to 150,000 commuters who endure hours-long waits to cross the road border between Malaysia and Singapore, Malaysian newspaper The Star reported. The Malaysian government has proposed a “single clearance system” to ease traffic along the Johor-Singapore Causeway, the report said. Such waits often require cross-border workers on the Malaysian side to wake up as early as 4am to get to work on time in Singapore. The proposal, still in its initial stages, would involve Malaysian immigration officials being stationed on the Singapore side of the causeway, with Singaporean officials stationed on the Malaysian side, in the southern
‘HONOR KILLING’: These ‘horrific murders’ are likely to continue unless the Iraqi authorities adopt robust legislation to protect women and girls, a rights group said The death of a young YouTube star at the hands of her father has sparked outrage in Iraq, where so-called “honor killings” continue to take place in the conservative country. Tiba al-Ali, 22, was killed by her father on Tuesday last week in the southern province of Diwaniya, Iraqi Ministry of Interior spokesman Saad Maan wrote on Twitter on Friday. Police had attempted to mediate between Ali — who resided in Turkey and was visiting Iraq — and her relatives to “resolve the family dispute in a definitive manner,” Maan said. Unverified recordings of conversations between Ali and her father appeared to indicate
RSS