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Constitutional Referendum Passes in Kyrgyzstan

28 June 2010 19:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The people of Kyrgyzstan have approved a new constitution, setting the stage for the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, according to results released Monday of a referendum that was held during the weekend, APA reports quoting â€œThe New York Timesâ€.
The official results showed that with almost all votes counted, 90.6 percent of voters backed a constitution that would pave the way for a parliamentary election in October.
Only 8 percent voted against the proposed constitution, according to preliminary data from 98.5 percent of the countryâ€™s 2,319 polling stations, the Central Election Commission said on its Web site. Turnout was about 69 percent.
The 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement Monday that the referendum was transparent.
â€œAlthough there were evident shortcomings, the reported high turnout indicates citizensâ€™ resilience and desire to shape the future of their country,â€ the organization said.
Ambassador Boris Frlec, head of the observation mission, said, â€œConsidering the extremely difficult environment in which the referendum took place only weeks after the violence in Osh and Jalal-Abad, the provisional government and other authorities should be commended for organizing a remarkably peaceful process.â€
Kyrgyzstanâ€™s interim leader, Roza Otunbayeva, declared victory on Sunday in the referendum that she hopes will legitimize her position as president and help stabilize the country. But in a sign of continuing disarray in her government, the director of the Central Election Committee said too few ballots had been counted to call the vote.
After Ms. Otunbayeva said at a news conference that it was a â€œhistoric day,â€ the leader of the Central Election Committee, Akylbek Tsariyev, told journalists that the announcement was â€œpremature and no one has the right to speak about the adoption of the new version of the fundamental law.â€
The new constitution would make Kyrgyzstan the first parliamentary republic in Central Asia, an area dominated by authoritarian presidents. The countryâ€™s interim government came to power in April after antigovernment protesters helped topple the president, whom the opposition accused of usurping power. The new system, if approved, would render the position largely ceremonial.
As a transitional measure, Ms. Otunbayeva would hold the posts of president and prime minister until an election in October, but she has said she would not seek to be prime minister.
The vote went ahead despite criticism that thousands of people, mostly minority Uzbeks, were still in mourning or displaced from their homes after a wave of deadly ethnic violence two weeks ago, and were unlikely to vote, undermining the legitimacy of the election in the very community where the government most needs a mandate.
On Sunday, polling stations were open in the southern cities where most of the Uzbek community resides, and United Nations and regional officials said most people who had fled over the border into Uzbekistan had returned in recent days. It was unclear why the Uzbeks returned so quickly, despite expressing continuing fears of their ethnic Kyrgyz neighbors and the police and military; many Uzbeks said men in uniform were involved in the mayhem.
International observers cautioned against putting too much hope in the new constitution in a country where emotions are still raw.
Earlier Sunday, Ms. Otunbayeva traveled to the scene of the worst clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the city of Osh to vote in a university building.
â€œIn this referendum, the people of Kyrgyzstan are proving that the country is united, standing on its feet and going forward,â€ she told reporters after voting. â€œAs a people, we want to heal the wounds we have sustained in recent times.â€
Members of her government said they hoped an electoral mandate would elevate her authority, ending a period of weakness and ineffectual governance in the face of the calamitous ethnic unrest and political turmoil.
Ms. Otunbayeva said Sunday that ministers intending to take part in Parliamentary elections scheduled for October must resign before July 10 â€” a move that could dampen infighting in the government.
The governmentâ€™s weakness and the ethnic unrest has severely destabilized Kyrgyzstan, a strategically important nation that hosts not only a Russian military base but also an American one supporting the war in Afghanistan.
Miroslav Jenca, the United Nations special representative to Kyrgyzstan, said in an interview that lasting stability, if it comes, will depend on the government conducting a plausible investigation into the ethnic violence and seeking to reconcile the two ethnic communities in the south.
Mr. Jenca said it was unclear why so many of the people displaced by the violence in June, mainly women and children, had returned in the past several days. Many are living with relatives or in tents because their homes were destroyed in the violence.
All along, officials had said they might return to reunite with their husbands who had stayed to guard the Uzbek neighborhoods, despite intense fear. Some had been so terrified that they refused food distributed by the Kyrgyz military, Mr. Jenca said, because they worried it was poisoned.
Mr. Jenca said â€œpsychological pressureâ€ had been used to encourage the refugees to return swiftly, but he declined to elaborate. Kyrgyz officials had visited camps to encourage refugees to return in time to vote on the referendum; political analysts have said the government wanted people to return so the vote would not be criticized as illegitimate. But analysts also said Uzbekistanâ€™s officials were eager to repatriate the refugees out of concern they might cause unrest inside the country because they are a more politically active community than the citizens of Uzbekistan.
Still, Mr. Jenca said that â€œthe overwhelming majorityâ€ of the refugees say they had not been forced to return.
In Bishkek, the capital, the streets were calm on election day.
Madina Musina, a 24-year-old ballroom dance instructor, said she voted for the new constitution because she favors a parliamentary system, after seeing two presidents â€” Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev â€” so anger their citizens that they were overthrown.
â€œWe had a bad experience with presidents,â€ she said.