Kyrgyz rights activists plan to send some 900 observers to Oct 4 elections
BISHKEK. Aug 11 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan's human rights association Taza Shailoo (Fair Elections) intends to send its long-term and short-term observers to monitor preparations for the country's parliamentary election, set for October 4, and the polls themselves.
Association head Ainura Usupbekova told a press conference on Tuesday that 35 long-term observers would monitor the election campaign in all of Kyrgyzstan's regions, and another 850 would work at polling stations on the election day.
For its part, the Kyrgyz parliament's press service told Interfax on Tuesday that a delegation of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) was currently on a visit to the capital Bishkek and had already discussed preparations for the upcoming polls with chairperson of the parliamentary committee for human rights Natalya Nikitenko.
OSCE/ODIHR, however, has not made any announcements so far concerning its possible plans to send its observers to the Kyrgyz elections.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission (CEC) reported that the number of political parties planning to run in these elections had declined from 34 to 30.
According to CEC, these four parties failed to open accounts to submit their election deposit, which stands at five million som, or $81,000, and is transferred from a party's election fund after its election candidates are issued registration.
A CEC spokesman told Interfax that so far only five of the 30 parties had begun forming their election funds. They include the pro-governmental Social Democratic Party and Ata-Meken, as well as pro-opposition Bir Bol and Butun Kyrgyzstan-Emgek.
Within the next two weeks, the political parties that have applied for registration to run in the October 4 polls plan to hold their congresses to confirm their lists of candidates.
Kyrgyz experts have observed that as the start of the candidate registration process nears, different political figures, among them some highly influential people, have joined the parties. Analysts believe that this step may help the parties, some of which (Bir Bol and 'Kyrgyzstan') will run in a parliamentary election for the first time, to win the votes of some part of the electorate.