Kyrgyzstan votes in landmark election

BISHKEK: Kyrgyz voters cast their ballots on Sunday to create the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, in an election many hope can unite the country only four months after the worst bloodshed in its modern history.

Unique among elections in ex-Soviet Central Asia, voters have no idea which party will win the majority of seats in a new parliament and select a prime minister who will attempt to knit together a country plagued by political and ethnic divisions.

"Our people do not suffer from amnesia. Our people know their history. They will rise quickly to create a parliamentary republic and protect it themselves," President Roza Otunbayeva said after casting her vote in a music school in Bishkek.

After nearly two decades of failed authoritarian rule, interim leaders want to empower a prime minister to restore stability in the former Soviet republic, where clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks killed more than 400 people in June.

The United States, which operates a military air base in the country to support the war in Afghanistan, has vocally embraced the plan to create the first democracy in a region otherwise ruled by presidential strongmen with an iron grip on power.

Gennady Danilov, 45, was the first to cast his vote at Polling Station No. 1215, a school in the centre of Bishkek. He folded his ballot paper, 70 centimetres in length, and dropped it into a glass box adorned with the Kyrgyz national crest.

"I've never voted before," he said. "I'm simply fed up with this shambles. I hope that, this time, things might change for the better."

Otunbayeva, who came to power after a popular revolt toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, said about 800 election observers will monitor the vote nationwide. Voters' thumbs were stamped with indelible ink, a safeguard against multiple voting.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has stationed 40 long-term observers around the country and a further 200 short-term observers arrived for the vote.

"This is a remarkable election so far. We hope this openness and transparency will be reflected on polling day, but there is still a lot of work to be done," Morten Hoeglund, special coordinator of the OSCE's short-term observers, said.

Twenty-nine parties have registered for the election, of which six were widely expected to attract a large amount of support from Kyrgyzstan's 2.8 million registered voters -- slightly more than half of the country's total population.

"We don't have faith in anyone but ourselves. We're hoping, of course, for better," said 18-year-old Azamat Dzhanaliyev.

Turnout was 21 percent by 1300 local time (0700 GMT), five hours after voting began, the Central Election Commission said. Polls close at 2000 local time.

In the southern city of Osh, epicentre of the June violence, many residents were wary that a fraudulent election could spark another round of clashes.

Parts of the city remain in ruins, with many ethnic Uzbeks living in makeshift tents as they attempt to rebuild houses burned to the ground in the clashes. While some Uzbeks say they will reject the poll, many others say they will vote.

"The new authorities must take into account the mistakes of their predecessors," said Maksat Kalykulov, 41, an unemployed ethnic Kyrgyz in Osh. "They have to find and punish those behind these events, otherwise there will be new clashes."

Janez Lenarcic, director for the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said he was encouraged by the peaceful start to the election in Osh.

"Whatever irregularities or shortcomings appear, they should not be solved in the street. They should be solved through legal and judicial methods," Lenarcic told reporters in the city.

All 120 parliament seats will be filled through popular voting for party lists. No single party will be allotted more than 65 seats, regardless of its election result.

Among the frontrunners were the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, led by Almazbek Atambayev, deputy to Otunbayeva in the temporary government that replaced Bakiyev, as well as the Ata Meken party led by Omurbek Tekebayev.

Some parties fiercely oppose the idea of a parliamentary democracy, including Ar-Namys, led by former prime minister Felix Kulov. The party's campaign posters show Kulov shaking hands with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"Kulov is a military man. My husband is a military man. Military rule means order," said Taisiya Krevenkova, 62, after casting her vote in Bishkek.

Another party critical of the parliamentary system is Ata Zhurt, which has strong support from ethnic Kyrgyz in the south.

Its leader, Kamchibek Tashiyev, voted in a village outside Jalalabad, also the scene of violent clashes in June. "The election will put a stop to this conflict," he said.