Kyrgyz authorities looking into reasons for publication of incorrect preliminary results of parliamentary elections

BISHKEK. Nov 29 (Interfax) - The Kyrgyz authorities are looking into reasons for the publication of incorrect preliminary results of parliamentary elections, Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov said on Monday.

"The presidential administration has been investigating since morning what happened yesterday when the voting results were published," Baisalov said on social media.

There was no glitch in the Shailoo automated voting system, Baisalov said. "It is a program error in a publication table. A formula was incorrect on that page," he said.

Kyrgyz Digital Development Minister Dastan Dogoyev told Interfax that the program was developed by specialists from the Central Elections Commission. "The Digital Development Ministry took no part in the development of that program. They sought our advice after the error was detected. I cannot say for now who made the mistake, as the investigation is ongoing," Dogoyev said.

A glitch occurred on Sunday, during an automated count of votes cast in the Kyrgyz parliamentary elections, and the electoral system's website was down for 15-20 minutes. As the website operation resumed, there was a significant difference in preliminary voting results, and a number of parties that passed the threshold found themselves among outsiders.

Central Elections Commission head Nurzhan Shaildabekova said that the glitch occurred only in the data publication system, but not in the count of votes, and there were no doubts about the precision of information.

A number of political parties that failed to pass the 5% threshold demanded that the authorities cancel results of parliamentary elections and investigate violations.