KYRGYZSTAN’S CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM
On June 27, the national referendum on the new Constitution was held in Kyrgyzstan. According to the Kyrgyz Central Election Commission, almost 70 percent of eligible voters came to the polling stations, 90 percent of whom supported the proposed changes. Only 8 percent of all voters were against the draft Constitution. Around 200 international and 5,000 local observers monitored the voting in the nation’s 2,280 polling stations.
In light of the recent, bloody inter-ethnic conflict in the southern part of the country that left around 300 people dead (the real death toll could be several times higher), thousands injured and hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, the vote was held under less than ideal circumstances. The Interim Government remained firm that despite the likelihood of new outbreaks of violence, the Referendum would take place on June 27. The government’s plan to prevent violence included adding 8,000 policemen and 12,000 volunteers to guard the polling stations. This strategy proved effective as no violence broke out during the elections.
Meanwhile, the Interim Government went to unprecedented measures to assure high voter participation. These efforts included letting refugees and internally-displaced people, who were forced to leave their homes during the ethnic conflict, vote without any form of identification. Moreover, the authorities organized mobile polling stations for the ethnic Uzbeks still living in isolated neighborhoods in Osh city that were afraid of visiting ordinary voting stations.
As the new Constitution passed, most of the international organizations, including the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission, positively evaluated the way in which the elections were held. Local independent observers generally agreed that though there were minor violations during the voting process, the elections were largely free and fair. The Coalition “For Democracy and Civil Society”, a local NGO which deployed roughly 1,000 independent observers to more than 500 polling stations, claimed these minor violations were not significant enough to influence the results of the referendum.
However, a number of political parties and public organizations made statements accusing the Interim Government of falsifying the results. “We have video materials of cases where some citizens voted several times in different polling stations and there were buses that were taking these people to the different voting stations”, stated the leader of the Ata Jurt Party, Sadyr Japarov.
It is important to note that the new Constitution significantly increased the powers of the Parliament while diminishing the power of the President. This event transformed Kyrgyzstan into the first parliamentary state in Central Asia. Another change to the governmental structure was that the number of seats in Parliament was increased from 90 to 120. The political party that wins the most seats will have the right to form a government headed by the Prime Minister. However, according to the new changes in the Constitution, no single party can get more than 65 seats. Furthermore, the President will play an insignificant role in the decision-making process and is elected for a single six-year term.
Due to the structure of the Referendum question, those that voted in favor of the new Constitution were also voting to approve the Interim Government’s leader, Roza Otunbaeva, as the President of Kyrgyzstan for the transitional period leading to the Presidential elections in 2011. The question of Otunbaeva’s candidacy, with no alternative candidates offered, was included as an additional provision in the law “On giving effect to the Constitution of Kyrgyz Republic”. The approval of the draft Constitution automatically endorsed the Interim leader’s candidacy and vice-versa.
Many political experts claim that voters were “unpleasantly surprised” to see only one question on the ballot. “If people supported the draft Constitution it does not necessarily mean that they approve Otunbaeva’s candidacy”, said Marat Kazakpaev, a local political analyst. “All of these misunderstandings around the referendum question confused voters, and eventually led to a situation where people were not sure what they voted for”, he concluded.
As the official results were published, the newly-elected President Otunbaeva made a statement saying that “the people of Kyrgyzstan put behind them the authoritarian family-based regimes of the previous two Presidents”. She promised to announce the dates of the parliamentary elections within ten days and announced her intention to form her temporary cabinet of ministers on July 10, 2010. Also, Otunbaeva plans to form a Legislative Assembly to be entrusted with legislative powers until the new Parliament is elected. It is important to note that the previous Constitution remains valid until the upcoming parliamentary elections with President Otunbaeva standing at the head of the executive branch, whereas the assembly will be responsible for legislative affairs.
In light of general international support for the Constitution and the Interim government’s efforts to legitimize its power, the Russian President Medvedev disputed the appropriateness of the parliamentary system in Kyrgyzstan. During President Medvedev’s visit to Canada for the G20 summit he stated, “I cannot imagine how a parliamentary system will work in Kyrgyzstan”. Medvedev expressed his concerns about the vulnerability of this system to extremists. However, he added that it is an internal concern of Kyrgyzstan.
