From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Feb 15 2000 - 13:45:00 EST
KYRGYZ ELECTION COMMISSION REJECTS OPPOSITION PARTIES' ATTACKS
BISHKEK. Feb 15 (Interfax) - Chairman of Kyrgyzstan's Central
Election Commission Sulaima Imanbayev has rejected a proposal from the
six opposition parties and movements to put off the parliamentary
elections by party ticket from February 20 to sometime in October, given
state interference in the election process.
At a briefing in Bishkek on Tuesday, Imanbayev said that such
proposals may only be qualified as political populism. The constitution
stipulates, he said, that neither the president nor the Central Election
Commission has the right to put off elections or change their date.
He also said that the opposition parties had not been denied
registration and that registration had been denied only to candidates
who had violated the election law, mostly in matters dealing with the
residence qualification and the submission of income declarations.
Kyrgyzstan is deviating from the democratic principles stipulated
in the constitution, leader of the opposition party 'Arnamys' Feliks
Kulov told the press in Bishkek on Tuesday.
He also said that the members of his party are being dismissed and
that he "is regularly summoned to the National Security Ministry," where
he is questioned as a witness in a five year-old criminal case he has
nothing to do with.
He said that none of the independent political parties "will be
allowed to emerge on the political scene until the presidential
elections" and that the political parties running for parliament face
unequal conditions.
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