Excerpts from report by the Kyrgyz newspaper 'Vecherniy
Bishkek'
[newspaper headline]Its up to the observers
[newspaper subheading]The OSCE [Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe] will provide Kyrgyzstan with the
necessary assistance for training independent observers for
parliamentary and presidential elections.
At the end of last week an OSCE mission, headed by the
director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights, Gerard Stoudmann, arrived in [the Kyrgyz capital]
Bishkek in order to clarify the situation related to the
readiness of our state to hold democratic elections.
The mission had a busy schedule of meetings including
talks with [Kyrgyz president] A. [Askar] Akayev, as well as
with representatives of political parties and NGOs.
[Passage omitted: Kyrgyz political and economic reforms
need international backing]
The head of the OSCE office gave a positive appraisal to
the Electoral Code recently adopted by the [Kyrgyz] parliament.
In his view, one positive aspect is that the document is more
perfect than the previous one in effect. According to
statements made by delegation members at their meeting with
political parties and NGOs, our new law is even more perfect
than similar laws in some American states. Stoudmann thinks
that the new structure of legislative power only reserves a few
seats for political parties. However, it is progress that
political parties have seats at all.
However ideal the legislation, the main thing is how it
will be implemented. Although Stoudmann believes that Akayev,
through his democratic transformations, guarantees political
competition during the election campaign, nevertheless, the
presence of observers is essential. Here, in the opinion of the
OSCE members, representatives of NGOs, human rights
organizations and the press should have the main say. According
to Stoudmann, the OSCE will provide the necessary assistance
for holding preparatory seminars.
Nevertheless, our defenders of human right are of the view
that international institutions should exert more effective
influence on the Central Asian region in terms of conducting
objective elections.
According to the head of the [Kyrgyz-American] bureau of
human rights and law, N. [Natalya] Ablova, following the recent
presidential elections in Kazakhstan, the world community takes
a disillusioned view of attempts being made by the Central
Asian states to conduct democratic reforms.
Source: 'Vecherniy Bishkek', Bishkek, in Russian 11 May 99 p3
BBC Mon CAU130599/02 VA/KLS/MN