Kyrgyz electoral body denies allegations of bias towards Akayev

Excerpts from report by Kyrgyz radio on 23rd October

[Announcer] The 2000 presidential election - a roundtable meeting on this theme was held in Bishkek today [23rd October] at the Central Electoral Commission headquarters. The presidential candidates, NGOs and political parties all took part. The chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, Sulayman Imanbayev, described the course of the election campaign. Rakhat Kenesheva reports:

[Kenesheva] [Passage omitted: Six candidates contending Sunday's elections; some 2.5m voters registered; candidate who receives over 50 per cent of vote will be considered as elected president, according to Electoral Code.]

  A heated discussion took place on an issue of canvassing by that or other candidates. Some candidates' representatives said one-sided canvassing in favour of just one candidate, [incumbent president] Askar Akayev, was going on in the state mass media.

However, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, Sulayman Imanbayev, said that that could be explained:

[Imanbayev] We have discussed this issue. Let us consider this impartially. If a president knows that he is to stand for elections, he plans, in advance, his election campaign, and measures on the implementation of his term of office, I stress this again, measures on the implementation of his term of office, which may bring him additional results.

News reports cover his everyday activities which he has no right to hamper, on the contrary, he has the right to step up. It is a natural right and natural activity of any incumbent president in the period of an election campaign.

At the beginning of the election campaign, we reminded all the candidates that they must inform all of the mass media about the events they hold. We reminded all the mass media about this as well.

Unfortunately, when we sent requests to 'Slovo Kyrgyzstana', `Kyrgyz Tuusu' and `KTR Obo' for information, these publications said they had received no information from press services. It is very likely a team's lack of experience.

Source: Kyrgyz Radio first programme, Bishkek, in Russian 1300 gmt 23 Oct 00

BBC Mon CAU 231000/** tm/ma

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Posted October 24, 2000 © Eurasianet
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