Yurt City

Kyrgyzstan: Protesters Await Key Court Decision

By Bruce Pannier

Opposition supporters tried unsuccessfully today to occupy a regional administrative building in an eastern province of Kyrgyzstan as demonstrations continue ahead of the second round of parliamentary elections on 13 March. Protesters in Naryn Oblast have had the building in the provincial capital surrounded for days, and only temporarily suspended their blockade of a major highway. They are challenging the authorities’ decision to remove the local incumbent — opposition candidate Ishenbai Kadyrbekov — from the ballot ahead of the 13 March runoff.

Prague, 9 March 2005 (RFE/RL) — Will voters in District 33 be offered the chance to elect opposition candidate Ishenbai Kadyrbekov on 13 March?

A ruling had been expected today, but now it appears that voters there won’t know until at least tomorrow whether the runoff includes two names — or just one. That’s the soonest that a court in the capital Bishkek is expected to render its verdict regarding Kadyrbekov’s appeal.

Kadyrbekov, an incumbent communist with more than a decade in the national parliament, made it through the first round of elections on 27 February with a second-place finish to a local drinks manufacturer.

But his preparations for the second round were cut short on 7 March, when a Naryn regional court nullified his candidacy. The court said his team campaigned outside the allowable period. It also concluded that Kadyrbekov had improperly participated in an unsanctioned rally in the Kyrgyz capital in early March.

That decision featured prominently in today’s attempt to seize the regional administration building in the city of Naryn. Protesters in Naryn blame President Askar Akaev and his administration for Kadyrbekov’s disqualification. Demonstrators had surrounded the building for days, chanting anti-Akaev slogans, as they did this afternoon: “Akayev get out! Forever! We are for justice!”

Kadyrbekov claims the decision barring him from competing in elections must have had government support. “I think, here are local authority play a big role in our case,” he said. “But at the same time, Naryn authorities couldn’t act in such a way without support from the Kyrgyz government — against the local people. Now thousands of people are demonstrating; they are very nervous.”

Protests are continuing in four of Kyrgyzstan’s seven provinces. Some began before the first round of voting — in fact, calling for honest and fair elections. Now, many feel the first round was neither free nor fair. And new reasons to demonstrate appear to be emerging as well.

In Naryn Oblast, Kadyrbekov’s case is one such reason.

The man who beat Kadyrbekov by two percentage points in the first round is Karganbek Samakov. He said the local election commission and regional court acted properly in rejecting Kadyrbekov’s candidacy, and he said the protests in Naryn have been illegal.

“What is happening in District 33 is fine. The court has upheld the district election commission’s ruling. All these calls for overturning that decision are illegal. Everything is in the hands of the court. Let the court decide,” Samakov said.

But even that seemingly simple approach begs questions. The issue of Kadyrbekov’s candidacy was first visited by the regional court in Naryn Oblast. Now, since the case involves the country’s Central Election Commission, it will be decided by a court in the capital Bishkek. That court today postponed consideration of the case until tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the situation in Naryn is getting increasingly complicated.

Protesters agreed late yesterday to remove a roadblock they set up several days ago, leaving some 800 vehicles with goods bound for China stranded. Kadyrbekov urged protesters to clear the blockade. But they say they will again block the highway if the Bishkek court does not reinstate Kadyrbekov’s candidacy.

Seven of Kadyrbekov’s supporters also declared a hunger strike yesterday. They were joined by two members of the local election commission. The commission members offered their own motives for their hunger strike, as district commission Chairwoman Gulzat Abdrasulova explained: “There is pressure on us from two sides,” she said. “From Kadyrbekov’s side, people are calling on us but we cannot perform our job. We called both candidates to come to see us. Until both come, we decided to go on a hunger strike.”

As legal maneuvering continues, protesters in Naryn have grown increasingly anxious. One woman, demonstrating outside the provincial administration building, told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service that state television is misleading the country into believing everything is quiet in the province.

“Here we are, standing near the government building [in the city of Naryn],” she said. “But on state television, they always say elections in Naryn were clean and fair. We have been standing here for three days. This is an attempt to trick the people. My whole family supports Kadyrbekov. He has served his constituency.”

Protesters in Naryn were already linking their actions to those of demonstrators in the southern Osh and Jalal-Abad oblasts.

Meanwhile, some 20 deputies in the current parliament called today for an emergency session of both houses of parliament tomorrow. The deputies want to review opposition calls to annul the results of the February voting and hold an early presidential election.

(Venera Djumataeva of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service contributed to this report.)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

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Nathan Hamm – author of 2973 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.

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