Results in from elections in Kyrgyzstan

The early vote called for by Žaparov to implement the new electoral system promoted the presence of women through gender quotas and introduced remote voting. But the division into districts, the reduction in the number of MPs and the limitation of parliamentary powers have in fact favoured the candidates most loyal to the president.

Bishkek (AsiaNews) - Parliamentary elections for the Žogorku Keneš were held in Kyrgyzstan on 30 November, an early vote after the one in 2023, to comply with the new electoral rules approved this year. The vote selected three candidates for each of the 30 electoral districts, choosing those who obtained the highest number of votes and adhering to gender quotas, whereby at least one of the three elected candidates had to be of a different gender from the others. Opinions are divided on the advantages and disadvantages of the new system, as reported by Kaktus.Media.

Political scientist Baktybek Žumagulov believes that “the multiple mandate system for each seat is important for eliminating conflicts”, which have always accompanied elections in Kyrgyzstan, followed by continuous upheavals and coups d'état until the current presidency of Sadyr Žaparov. Even in 2020, the year of Žaparov's first election after serving as interim president following internal conflicts, there were instances of corruption among local authorities and political party candidates, with the systematic buying of votes, while “remote” voting proved more effective this time around. Kyrgyz parties were mostly “feeding troughs” based on corruption, with no ideological basis.

Former member of the Central Electoral Commission Atyr Abramkhatova also believes that the possibility of remote voting was a great advantage, and the gender quota proved to be a “great step forward”, even if in general it was understood only as “two men and one woman”, and in any case seven women were elected not on the basis of the quota. She believes that “as we get used to the system, there will be even more opportunities for women, with the correspondence between seats and votes cast without interference”. Abramkhatova also believes that the fee for candidacy should be lowered, perhaps by increasing the number of districts.

For another political scientist, Ajdin Bakytbek, the main flaw in the elections was “the inability of the whole country to support single candidates”, limiting itself to district quotas, despite the existence of leaders capable of garnering hundreds of thousands of votes nationwide. In his opinion, one of the aims of the reform was to ‘exclude certain leaders who have claims to the presidential seat’, defending the Žaparov regime. Now politicians must change their strategies and ‘choose certain categories of voters, housewives or small and medium-sized traders, representing concrete interests’. In some districts, clan solidarity prevailed, unlike others that were historically less cohesive.

One of the most voted candidates was the outgoing MP Erulan Kokulov, a protagonist of many parliamentary debates, who in his district of Issyk-Kul gathered over 11,000 votes, and if he had been able to run nationally, he would have easily obtained around 350,000, gaining greater authority in view of the upcoming presidential elections, where he is nevertheless projected as a possible alternative. According to Bakytbek, district mandates make sense in large federal countries, where the various states defend their sovereignty and autonomy, but not in a small and quarrelsome country like Kyrgyzstan, where the party system is better suited to 4.5 million voters, provided that corruption can be limited.

At the top of the winners' rankings, however, were the “relatives of the powerful”, such as Šairbek Tašiev, brother of Security Council chief Kamčibek, and in general the deputies most loyal and close to President Žaparov, who thus secures very secure control over the 90 new deputies (instead of the 120 in the previous Žogorku Keneš), more than half of whom were re-elected from the 2023 parliamentary session. Not to mention that in the new version, parliament will not have the right to vote no confidence in the government, and in practice not even to impeach the president, making it resemble, for many commentators, a “purely consultative assembly” in the hands of the presidential apparatus.

• Kyrgyzstan
• Bishkek
• elections
• Žaparov
• women