PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN KYRGYZSTAN WAS FREE AND OPEN

Novosti

2005-02-28 11:20 * KYRGYZSTAN * ELECTION * ASSESSMENT *

BISHKEK, February 28 (RIA Novosti) – The parliamentary election, held
in Kyrgyzstan last Sunday, was legitimate, free and open. This is said
in the statement by the mission of observers from the Commonwealth of
Independent States, which the head of the headquarters of the mission
of observers from the CIS Asan Kozhakov read out to journalists
on Monday.

At the same time he pointed out that in the course of the voting the
observers from the CIS noted a number of violations, which, however,
could not influence the results of the election. In particular, some
ballot boxes were sealed with a violation of the established rules,
the putting of markings on the voters’ hands led to dragging out of the
voting, and problems relating to the rosters of voters emerged. Many
of the above-said shortcomings were eliminated on the spot.

The observers from the CIS visited 1,277 polling stations in 71 out
of the 75 majority constituencies.

The CIS mission included the official delegations from Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

As Mr. Kozhakov explained, Ukraine officially stated that it would not
appoint its representatives to the CIS mission. So, he rejected the
accusation, voiced by a representative of the Ukrainian delegation
at the press conference, that the CIS mission ignores the Ukrainian
delegation’s opinion. “Ukraine carried out monitoring on a bilateral
basis,” Mr. Kozhakov explained.