Text of report by the Kyrgyz news agency Kabar on 4th February

Bishkek, 4th February: An international election campaign delegation of the
[US] National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), which
was in Kyrgyzstan from 27th January to 2nd February, has prepared a report
on its monitoring of the election campaign. "The NDI has no intention of
interfering in the electoral process, nor of passing any final judgement on
it at the present moment," the director of the NDI programme on elections
and political processes, Patrick Merloe, said. However, in his
opinion,"recent actions undertaken by all three branches of power are
undermining the fairness of the electoral process and the Kyrgyz citizens'
free participation in elections". The delegation includes amongst these
actions the restriction which parliament introduced into the law on
elections, which prevents four political parties from standing in the
elections. Another eight parties were barred from standing in the elections
to the Legislative Assembly [standing chamber] of the parliament because
they were registered less than one year prior to the appointed election
date [20th February 2000]. In addition, legal proceeding were launched
immediately before the election campaign opened against two parliament
members who were also candidates for seats in the future parliament, one of
whom, incidentally, had announced his intention to run for president.
Finally, three political parties who won the right to stand in the
elections are at the moment being investigated by the authorities to check
whether their latest congresses [held to nominate parliamentary candidates]
were legal. "Cumulatively, the abovementioned actions are having a negative
impact on the democratic essence of the election campaign in Kyrgyzstan,"
Merloe believes.

Source: Kabar news agency, Bishkek, in Russian 1007 gmt 04 Feb 00
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