For the Kyrgyzstani people, the upcoming
Presidential elections are a subject of worry. So far the special linguistic commission
that tests the presidential candidates’ command of the Kyrgyz language has already
failed six candidates. Another worry is that Topchubek Turgunaliev, the well-known
opposition figure, was sentenced to a 16-year imprisonment for "inspiring the
crime" of assassination of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, an event that never
occurred. The pre-election mission of the National Democratic Institute came to Kyrgyzstan
for a 4-day visit with the purpose of examining the electoral and political conditions in
advance of the 29 October presidential elections.

The delegation consisted of professionals from the political arena from the US,
Slovenia and Hungary. They had 40 meetings with most of the authorities involved in the
electoral process including candidates, Central Election Commission, journalists,
monitoring organizations and even observed the Kyrgyz language exam. The results of the
monitoring were presented at the recently held press conference. The most vital issue that
concerned the delegation was linguistic tests. The delegation stated that Kyrgyzstan is
the first country they visited which holds a language proficiency test for those running
for Presidency. The test is not uniform. Different candidates were asked about issues in
spheres of literature, agriculture, history and even mining. The results of the test are
not shown to the candidate or the public. The commission simply announces the test score.

Members of the delegation commented that if US Congress was to be examined in such a
manner only three or four congressional representatives would be eligible to run for
election. The recommendations were to either eliminate the test that was not conducted
during the 1995 presidential elections, or make the testing uniform, open and objective.
"Freedom goes beyond the language," said one of delegation members stating that
it should be up to the people of Kyrgyzstan to chose not up to seven members of the
linguistic commission. Another hot issue, the legality of monitoring organizations such as
Coalition of NGOs sponsored by foreign grants, was discussed. Local media questioned the
delegation about their meetings with Central Election Commission and got the response that
CEC was positive about allowing local initiative groups to monitor the elections.

A comment was made though about the possibility of monitoring of some election
commissions. The Central Election Commission, for example, is situated in the government
controlled White House, and thus it is almost impossible to get into it without a special
document from security guards that is to be requested long in advance of the proposed
meeting. In general the meeting was very informative and useful for the improvement of the
elections. But it was marred by the sarcastic questions of local media about the
"interference" of the NDI that has worked in Kyrgyzstan for seven years on the
internal affairs of Kyrgyzstan. Delegation members reacted that Kyrgyz government
"has no problem accepting foreign financial assistance" and that double
standards should not be used to evaluate the level of "interference".

Anna Kirey, student of journalism, American University-Kyrgyzstan.