Posted on 10/16/2010 12:04:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...The electorate wanted democracy but now some are worried about the outcome of the parliamentary vote last Sunday. The country received international praise for conducting what could easily be called the most democratic elections that have ever taken place in Central Asia. In this part of the world, most countries are ruled by authoritarian leaders and elections are often a mere formality. The outcome is predictable. Those in power stay in power. But this time around, no-one knew for sure which party would emerge as the winner...
They had not expected the Kyrgyz ethno-nationalist party, Ata Zhurt (Fatherland), to come top. Its leadership is made up of politicians who served under the previous authoritarian president, Bakiyev, who was ousted in a popular uprising in April.
The parties that had helped to overthrow him had been expected to do well. The opinion polls said they would win...
But, while apparently criticising one party, Moscow showed its support to another. During the parliamentary election race, Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev met the leader of the Ar-Namys party, headed by a former prime minister Felix Kulov. The photograph of these two men shaking hands was widely used during the election campaign. It delivered the votes of most of the country's ethnic Russians to the party. And despite some signs before the election that ethnic Uzbeks would not vote, many of them did. And they, too, largely voted for Mr Kulov's Ar-Namys because one of the main figures in his party is an Uzbek.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Bump.
Frankly, I didn’t even know they had elections.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
