Fallout

[Note: I'll add stuff to this post as it comes in. It'll change and I may not necessarily put updates at the bottom.]

RFE/RL reports on protests in Bishkek and around the country. Once again, it seems the regions are outdoing the capital. If you can read Kyrgyz or something similar, I think there’s more here as well.

More at Google News

Well, it’s the day after, and the biggest news after Kyrgyzstan’s election so far is probably the OSCE preliminary report. From the complete document (PDF)

(Lots of great stuff in the extended)

The elections were characterized by a number of substantial shortcomings, including the following:

• Comments of high officials, including the President, repeatedly warning of the dangers of potential civil war and associating opposition calls for non-violent protest with extremism, had a negative effect on the pre-election campaign environment;
• Fundamental freedoms necessary for a meaningful election process were at times infringed upon during the course of the pre-election period, including freedom of assembly and expression;
• Widespread and publicly acknowledged vote buying undermined the principles of fair and equitable competition and was in violation of domestic law;
• Administrative interference in the election process by some officials, including at least one oblast governor;
• Pressure on some university students and faculty staff to support particular candidates;
• Inaccurate, poorly-maintained and, at times, inaccessible voter lists, which contributed to a lack of confidence in the electoral process;
• A fragmented complaints and appeals process;
• An unduly restrictive application of the Election Code which cancelled the right to candidacy of five former diplomats on grounds of residency requirements, despite the fact that the fundamental role of a diplomat is to be posted abroad by the respective government to serve its interests internationally;
• Provisions for de-registration of candidates were applied inconsistently and disproportionately, often on minor technical grounds. These de-registrations occasioned significant public protests in some constituencies;
• Limited voter access to diverse sources of information, further aggravated by restrictions on media broadcasting and newspaper production, as well as by hostile statements from senior governmental officials directed towards independent media.

Positive aspects of the process included:

• A partially improved legal framework, despite a number of flaws in the implementation of certain new amendments;
• Competitive races in many constituencies, providing voters with a genuine choice;
• Provisions for free air-time on the State funded media that permitted candidates a meaningful opportunity to convey their message;
• A relatively well-developed civil society was active in, and contributed to, the electoral process;
• The Central Election Commission (CEC) worked efficiently, and with few exceptions, so did Territorial Election Commissions (TECs);
• Voter meetings organized by the TECs were popular with voters and featured considerable voter interaction with candidates, often led by women;
• Transparency measures at polling station level were introduced, including marking voters with ink as an anti-fraud measure and the use of transparent ballot boxes, although the latter raised some secrecy concerns with regard to unfolded ballots;
• The CEC’s publication of PEC result protocols on the internet the morning after the elections, together with the fact that domestic observers and candidate proxies were generally able to receive protocols at PEC level, constituted an important step towards enhancing transparency.

Everything is, of course, described in much more detail in the report (PDF).

It probably also comes as no surprise that the SCO and CIS share a different view.

According to the CEC, voter turnout was around 61%. Voting is likely to head to runoffs in about half of the districts.

Also of note in the AP’s latest article:

The roadblocks were removed by Saturday, but in one of the districts where the protests broke out, some 66 percent of the voters cast their ballots against all candidates; that will force a new vote and it is possible the disqualified candidates could be on the new ballot. Voting was postponed until March 13 in the other district that had been hit by protests.

A local non-governmental organization, the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, said Monday it “cannot regard the parliamentary election as honest and just,” citing complaints including improper constitution of local election commissions and a lack of coverage of opposition candidates by state-run or -influenced broadcasters and newspapers.

About 50 opposition supporters rallied in Bishkek at midday Monday and scuffles broke out with government supporters who tried to tear up their signs.

Righteousbiche has figured out why government news sites were unavailable over the weekend. Ferghana.ru has more details.

Ferghana.ru also has a few other stories of note:

• Hizb ut-Tahrir members in Osh were totally into democracy this weekend.
• The scene on the ground in Bishkek.
• And, an analytical piece of note:
  

  As a matter of fact, whether it was another velvet revolution yesterday or not does not matter one way or another for the mentioned debates. It is what cannot be denied that matters. The events in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan illustrate the following tendency: there are changes in the wind even in the quiet God-forsaken places in the Commonwealth – with yellow or green a.k.a. immature opposition. The same is true of Moldova, another country on the eve of the election. It’s like peat burning under the surface. The flames as such are not visible, but there is a haze in the air that obscures the reality and makes it difficult to breath. It means that all of it should be ascribed to the situation in the republics themselves rather than to external conspiracies.

  Let us admit it: experienced in political wars, the old post-Soviet elites can defeat their green, unschooled, and intolerant opposition with smart administrative moves. Whoever is waiting for a parade of velvet revolutions in the Commonwealth will certainly be disappointed. All the same, even the powerful administrative resource cannot put out deeply-rooted discontent. Putting out peat burning under the surface is impossible. When it burns out completely sooner or later, surface under the feet of the powers-that-be crumbles into pieces.