CIS observer mission positively assesses Kyrgyz parliamentary polls

BISHKEK, October 5. /TASS/. The observer mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the alliance of former Soviet republics, has praised Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan. "The elections were well-organized and held in a calm atmosphere," the head of the mission Vladimir Garkun told reporters in the capital Bishkek. A total of 137 representatives of the CIS mission monitored the polls. "There were separate violations, but they were not of a wide-scale character and could not have affected the outcome of the voting," Garkun said. He also noted that the candidates had no problems during the election campaigning. "All the parties had equal conditions at that time." The mission’s chief also stressed that huge work had been carried out with the Kyrgyz authorities on the technical support for the elections. "The drawbacks in the work of the equipment were just tiny." For the first time in the Central Asian republic’s history, all the polling stations were equipped with special biometrical data reading devices and electronic ballot boxes. The country’s authorities said these were the most open and transparent elections ever. Six out of 14 political parties will join the new parliament in Kyrgyzstan, the head of the republic’s Central Election Commission, Tyigunaly Abdraimov, said earlier on Monday citing preliminary data. "The information about some 30,000 voters has not been received, and only after this we may say about the final results," the top election official said. The voter turnout at Sunday’s elections in the country reached 57.5 percent. The data from 22 out of a total of 2,374 polling stations is yet to be analyzed. Read more