Convincing Victory of NGO Coalition, Effective Legal Remedy Against Attempted Violation of Privacy of Vote On 17 February, the Coalition of the Non-Governmental Organizations won a legal case against the Central Election Commission (CEC)of the Kyrgyz Republic. The CEC decided on 11 February to amend its own previous decision(of 31 January) to protect ballots by putting on their reverse side the signatures of ALL members of polling site commissions.The new decision provided for possible violation of privacy when each ballot was to be signed first by a chairperson and a secretary and then,on the election day, by a third person in the moment of handing it over to a voter at the polling station. This 'third person' was supposed to be a member of the polling station commission specially appointed to deal not with the entire list of voters but with the part of it(e.g.,one 'third' member deals with residents of the West Erkindik avenue while another 'third' member deals with residents of the East Erkindik avenue,etc.) So there would have been different signatures of different commission members on different ballots at one polling station .And the ballots would not have been identical in that case. In addition,this controversial decision of the CEC makes it possible to trace back voters' choice thus violating privacy and secrecy of ballot. The Pervomaiski district court of Bishkek(judge Asseinova) ruled today that the CEC must revoke its decision No 266 taken on 11 February as it does not comply with Article 1 p.6 of the Constitution and Article 6 of the Election Code(protection of secret ballot).The court's decision is effective since its announcement. Now it is hardly possible for the CEC to change anything within 2 days' period before the elections(due on 20 February),and all signatures of commissions members will be put on the reverse side of all ballots on the day preceding the elections date - as was agreed by the CEC on 31 January. The NGO Coalition announced today that their victory in the court of law saved the CEC from a far more serious lawsuit( or a series of lawsuits) - they had planned to seek compensation for both moral and material damages,and would have advised the voters to behave accordingly,because this prompt and non-motivated change of elections procedures could have undermined all their efforts to educate voters and elections observers.The Coalition prepared 2,000 local observers and disseminated numerous leaflets and brochures describing all stages of elections.   Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law 17 February 2000