Controversial Kyrgyzstan Presidential Vote

 Controversial Kyrgyzstan Presidential Vote

- By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

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 I- Bakiyev re-elected amid controversy

Islamic world under siege, but some Muslim nations are supporting the anti-Islamic nations on payment basis. Kyrgyzstan is a case in point. The neo-democracy politicians once taste the power, do not wish to leave the privileges coming with power status and try all tricks to stay on. Incumbent President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Ak Zhol party is one who doesn't want to shed power. The "committed" voters of republic of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia stood in long queues on 23 July to elect a new President, as polls opened for presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan- a close ally of Russia. There were six candidates running for the top job and President Bakiyev, who gathered 76 percent of the vote for re-election to a second term, has been since inaugurated on August 02 Sunday. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was among the first to extend his congratulations, saying the results were "evidence of a high level of trust from the people."

Out of five million Kyrgyz citizens, more than half are eligible voters and the turnout was expected to be low, citing apathy and mistrust of the election process. Over 500 international observers enjoyed monitoring the process. The opposition alleges that last week's election was fraudulent. European monitors said the vote was flawed, with widespread cases of ballot box stuffing and multiple voting. Kyrgyzstan's central election commission said presidential election was still valid after the main opposition challenger denounced the vote as fraudulent and quit the race. Especially the European monitors have described Kyrgyzstan's presidential election as a "disappointment", saying it failed to meet key international standards.

Among the six candidates, two were real contenders, Bakiyev and the main opposition candidate, Almazbek Atambayev, who have both been campaigning across the country. Atambayev - a former prime minister, who had pulled out on polling day claiming widespread fraud, secured 8% of the vote.. Atambayev claimed widespread ballot-stuffing and the intimidation of opposition election monitors. He also charged that official turnout of nearly 80 percent was inflated. President Bakiyev was elected to a four-year term in 2005, after allegations of a rigged ballot led to mass protests that drove then-President Askar Akayev from power. The constitution was later amended to increase the maximum presidential term by a year, leading to ambiguity over whether the election should be held in 2009 or 2010. But the constitutional court decided last month that the polls should be scheduled for 23 July.

The dispute over the legitimacy of the election has set the stage for nationwide protests in Kyrgyzstan, which hosts a U.S. air base crucial to operations in Afghanistan and is the focus of competition between Washington and Moscow for regional influence. Atambayev said the vote was illegitimate and a new election should be held. He called for mass protests against the government. But plans for a protest march to the Central Election Commission fizzled. Atambayev told reporters authorities were planning to provoke violence and then blame it on the opposition.. But Atambayev said Bakiyev's opponents would press their fight, saying the government "wants to rule the people by theft." The political opponents claim their supporters have been threatened. Atambayev said he had sent his wife and daughter away from the country after being intimidated. He has now flown to Moscow seeking support - although Russia has traditionally backed President Bakiyev.

Protests by opposition followed and many people were arrested and forced into waiting police buses. A rally by opposition supporters in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, has been broken up by police. Previous polls under Bakiyev have also been criticized by international monitors, but Russia supported its ally. The situation contrasts with that of 2005 when he came to power following the so-called Tulip revolution. He won a landslide victory gaining almost 90% of the vote. Four years on his critics say his government has curbed free speech and become increasingly repressive.

The protesters had planned a march at the town of Balykchi on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, close to where the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will gather to discuss the creation of a joint rapid-response military task force.  Kyrgyz officials had warned the opposition that they would not tolerate protests during the summit. Leaders of the Kyrgyz opposition, protesting the outcome of last week's presidential elections, said that they would not hold public actions Friday or Saturday, when the Collective Security Treaty Organization will be holding an informal summit there, Itar-Tass reported. During the vote, clashes between opposition members and government forces were reported in the northern town of Balykchi. A group of about 300 protesters had left a market on the outskirts of Bishkek and had gone a short distance towards an opposition headquarters when they were intercepted by police, the leader of the opposition United People's Movement, Topchebek Turgunaliev said.

The last presidential elections in impoverished Kyrgyzstan took place four years ago March 2005. Kyrgyzstan is the only state in Central Asia to have a so-called color revolution, when a previous president was removed in a popular uprising in 2005, but four years on the country finds itself in a different political environment. In March 2005, the country underwent a popular uprising which became known as the Tulip Revolution. Then president Askar Akayev was forced to flee the country. Bakiyev was elected the following July with an overwhelming 89% of the popular vote. The United People's Movement (UPM), a coalition of opposition parties, attempted to stage mass protests, accusing him of squandering the opportunity given to him by the Kyrgyz people. They demanded electoral reforms and an end to the harassment of opposition members, threatening to hold more rallies if their demands not met. But in the event, turnout was poor and Bakiyev lived to fight another day. But despite this mandate, he has still faced some tough challenges - notably when opposition politicians sought to combine their efforts to him bring down earlier this year.  

The ruling Ak Zhol party won every parliamentary seat in the 2007 general elections, which foreign monitors said failed to meet international standards. The ruling party in Kyrgyzstan has nominated President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to stand for re-election. Bakiyev faced his former prime minister, Almazbek Atambayev, at the polls in July. Tensions are growing between the ruling Ak Zhol party and the main opposition, ahead of the elections. Opposition parties have accused the authorities of clamping down on critics, and they claim the government will try to rig the July ballot.

II- The Campaign & Protest

This presidential campaign has been Kyrgyzstan's usual election season with political drama. Bakiyev entered the campaign holding an overwhelming resource advantage. For example, Nurlan Motuev, who heads the Joomart Patriotic Movement, refused to engage Bakiyev in a radio debate, instead complimenting the president for his first term achievements.

President Bakiyev - who came to power four years ago with 90% of the vote off the back of a popular uprising which became known as the Tulip Revolution - had pledged to conduct free and fair elections -  campaigned on a platform of stability. Bakiyev "Election day was marred by many problems and irregularities, including ballot box stuffing, inaccuracies in the voter lists and multiple voting," the statement went on. The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the poll was "marred by many problems and irregularities." The OSCE also said that the "misuse of administrative resources and bias in the media coverage of the campaign" gave Bakiyev an "unfair advantage" ("one candidate") over his rivals.

Even before the pool date, Bakiyev appeared was on course for a landslide victory, with the central election commission saying he had won 86.2% of the vote with two-thirds of ballots counted. Partial results show incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev with an overwhelming lead of 85% of the vote.  Bakiyev, 59, had campaigned on a platform of stability, appealing to the electorate's desire to see an end to unrest. But the opposition accuses Bakiyev of cheating in the largely peaceful vote and say he is taking the country "” once viewed as the region's beacon of democracy "” down the path of authoritarianism.

Two days prior to the poll, a concert featuring local and Russian pop stars was held in Bishkek's largest stadium in support of Bakiyev's candidacy. A report published by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's election observers said that broadcast coverage of opposition campaigns has been limited, and state media has been predominantly focusing on the activities of President Bakiyev "both as candidate and president". The brains behind his campaign have chosen not to feature Bakiyev's picture. Instead ordinary citizens smile from the billboards with the simple captions "Bakiyev is our president" or "Bakiyev is good".  

Taking a cue from the successful campaign of US President Barack Obama, one of Atambayev's slogans is "Yes we can." His small posters sported a graphic rendering of his face similar to the iconic image of Obama's campaign. He promised to end the governance of one family and fight the country's high level of corruption. Billboards and posters for another candidate, Jenishbek Nazaraliev, promise a payout of 100,000 soms to every family. Nazaraliev, who made his fortune operating a popular drug-rehabilitation clinic, caused a stir with a campaign pledge to seek the legalization of cultivation of opium poppies.    

III- Central Asia, a Zone of corrupt leaders

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.. Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road.^[1] As a result, it has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe, West Asia, South Asia, and East Asia. In modern context, Central Asia consists of the five former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Other areas are often included such as Mongolia, Afghanistan, most of Pakistan, north-eastern Iran, north-western India, and western parts of the People's Republic of China such as Xinjiang. South-western and middle China such as Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Inner Mongolia, and southern parts of Siberia may also be included in Central Asia.

Islam is the religion most common in the Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and the peripheral western regions, such as Bashkiria. Most Central Asian Muslims are Sunni, although there are sizeable Shia minorities in Afghanistan. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan. Many text books still refer to this area as Turkestan, which was the name used prior to Stalin's rule. During pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was a predominantly Iranian. After expansion by Turkic peoples, central Asia became also the homeland for many Turkic peoples, including the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs. The most limited definition was the official one of the Soviet Union that defined the "Middle Asia" as consisting solely of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Soon after independence, the leaders of the five former Soviet Central Asian Republics met in Tashkent and declared that the definition of Central Asia should include Kazakhstan as well as the original four included by the Soviets. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia. The Collapse of the Soviet Union and revival of Islam in the region have ignited stiff competition among the powers to get hold of the resources.  

Kyrgyzstan became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. While Kyrgyzstan does possess oil and gas resources, it imports the vast bulk of what it needs. The economic situation is dire, particularly in the south where unemployment is very high and poverty rife, and the country's politics have turned volatile in recent years. In 2005 a popular revolt, sparked by allegations of government interference in parliamentary elections and fuelled by poverty and corruption, swept the former president, Askar Akayev, from power. He had led the country since independence. Kyrgyzstan is a multi-ethnic state comprising Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Russians, Ukrainians and Germans, and a small number of Uighur, Dungan - Chinese Muslims - and Koreans. There are not as many sheep as there were in Soviet times, Kyrgyzstan provided winter overcoats for the world's largest army and the nation has still plenty.  

Twenty years after independence, the small Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan remains one of the poorest parts of the former Soviet Union, struggling to make its way in a complex and sometimes hostile world. There is tension between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in border areas over access to land and housing. Relations between the two countries were strained following the bloodshed in Uzbekistan 's Andijan region in 2005 when hundreds fled across the border to seek refuge in Kyrgyzstan. 

Moscow led SCO binds all Central Asian states Kyrgyzstan, with Russia and China. Bakiyev has largely lived up to promises to increase government spending and boost salaries and pensions. But the effect of the global financial crisis on Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan has had a devastating impact on Kyrgyzstan's economy, which relies heavily on remittances and trade. Bakiyev has also secured more than $2 billion in aid and loans from Russia, widely seen as an attempt by Moscow to pressure Bakiyev to close down the Manas base.

IV-             US Base Deal

Corrupt politicians degrade nations ad destory people's hopes and lives.. In his inaugural speech four years ago, Bakiyev pledged to fight corruption and nepotism. Kyrgyzstan, he said, will not become a place for the fulfillment of someone else's geopolitical interests - particularly those of the US and Russia. Now the country is perhaps best known for precisely that - with debate centering on the only US military base in Central Asia, which Kyrgyzstan announced in February that it would shut. Manas, as the base is known, is the main transit hub for tens of thousands of US and Nato terror forces on their way in and out of occupied Afghanistan. They are using Muslims nations to kill Muslims in neighborhoods.

Incumbent president is a good boy of both USA and Russia. Following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, Kyrgyzstan agreed to allow US forces to use Bishkek's Manas airport as a base. In January 2009, in a major blow for US and NATO operations in Afghanistan, President Bakiyev announced the closure of the base. The move came after Russia offered Kyrgyzstan more than $2bn in loans and other financial help. But the Kyrgyz government perhaps bluffed the closure was prompted by popular disapproval of the base. However in June 2009 the authorities reviewed their decision, after the US agreed to more than triple the annual rent it pays for using the airbase.

Kyrgyzstan allowed US forces to use the base in late 2001 when the Taliban were overthrown in Afghanistan by the GSTs led b y the USA. The decision to close the base came just as US President Barack Obama signaled that the US would double its number of troops in Afghanistan. On the same day that President Bakiyev made his decision public, Russia offered Kyrgyzstan almost $2bn (£1.2bn) in loans, and a $300m grant. In June parliament voted in favour of a new deal allowing the Americans to stay, and just in the past week a high level Russian delegation has visited Kyrgyzstan to discuss the expansion of its military presence by opening a second base in the country..

His government had ordered U.S. forces out of, but later reversed itself.  But on July 07, 2009, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has signed into law a deal allowing the US to continue using an airbase to support international forces in Afghanistan. The deal was reached last month after the US agreed to more than triple the annual rent it pays for the Manas base to $60m (£37m) plus a further $120 million in investment and aid. Kyrgyzstan had announced in February it was closing the Manas base by August. It denied at the time that the planned closure was linked to a promise of $2bn (£1..2bn) in aid from Russia. The base, near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, has been used to transport troops to Afghanistan and refuel terror military planes to kill Muslims. The closure of the Manas facility, the only US base in Central Asia, would have come as a major blow to American operations in Afghanistan.

V "“ Islamization Not Priority

Like Russia, Kyrgyzstan is still undecided about its future course and one cannot say if it turns to communism again, instead of Shari'a, if Moscow takes that route eventually and as a result Islamization is not yet entered the thought process of Muslims there. Central Asian nations came out of the erstwhile Soviet Union after the collapse of communist regime are famed for promoting rampant corruption, crime and other illegal and immoral activities and, to be known as "democracies", they also try to imbibe western anti-Islamic fascist culture. Bulk of the Central Asian nations are under the control of the Kremlin, though they are free now, because Russia considers the region a part of its legitimate backyard.  

Although Islam was reestablished in Kyrgyzstan, the leaders showed enthusiasm for Europeanization just as the Kremlin was also making efforts to make it look a European power too. In Soviet times, religion only survived in the niches of everyday life. Today, Islam in Kyrgyzstan has reawakened, but does not seek Islamization of the society. Central Asia's common cultural roots, the new Islam, strengthened man's relations with nature in his human portrayal. Chingiz Aitmatov condemned foreign tourists fly through their mountains on helicopter and hunt down the last of the snow leopards with high tech rifles and precision sighting telescopes. Man is encroaching on nature with increasing brutality. But he as a writer of human coscience Chingiz did not condemn western civilization for this inhuman awkwardness.

The legendary Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov made a great contribution to the world literature, passed away in June 2008. One of the top fiction writers of Communist Soviet Russia he showed social contractions in ordinary rural life.  It is shocking that a writer who human sufferings and expoitations in a tenderly painful manner, Aitmatov's perceptions were heavily "Europeanized". Chingiz Aitmatov secured his place in world literature four decades ago with his novelette "Jamila," since 1995, he has represented Kyrgyzstan as its ambassador to France , Belgium , NATO, and the European Union in Brussels. I am pleased that Europe has begun to increase its influence in Central Asia through development programs and cooperation efforts. Kyrgyzstan should take advantage of its experience in Central Asia. Personally, the religion remains something foreign to me, as I grew up in an atheist state, but I respect religions as preservers of human truths. At the same time, a stronger role for Islam in the society would lead to a division of Kyrgyzstan, as many observers are pleased in claiming. Islamism can lead to problems in many countries if there is no progress in improving the situation of the population, especially in terms of the economy. 

Even as the Global State terrorists (GST) go on rampage in Islamic world killing defenseless Muslims by branding them effectively as "terrorists" for challenging the anti-Islamic terror world or for making efforts for establishing an Islamic society in their own nation, some Muslim nations are being run by corrupt politicians who, at par with their non/anti-Muslim counter-parts do elsewhere, win polls to gain legitimacy for misrule and make as much wealth as the term permits them. Kyrgyzstan is one of most corrupt states in the region.

The region by and large follows the Russian legacy. Political turmoil has wracked Kyrgyzstan "” a poor country of 5 million on China's western border "” since 2005, when street protesters drove the Soviet-era leader out of office and ushered Bakiyev to power. A problem facing Kyrgyzstan at the moment is that, since the beginning of this year, there have been a series of attacks on independent journalists. In the latest incident, just two weeks before the election, Almaz Tashiev - who worked for the opposition Agym newspaper - died following surgery for injuries sustained after he was beaten by police officers in the town of Nookat. In March, a reporter from the opposition newspaper Reporter Bishkek was also brutally attacked - it has been reported that he can no longer write. Bakyt Beshimov, back at his campaign headquarters, says the terror abuses are continuing. 

The elections every where in today's criminally corrupt world seem preordained with the ruling dispensation trying every possible mischief to get reelected. Bakiyev has made good use of all the advantages of incumbency. "Bakiyev was visiting the regions; he was opening schools and hospitals and all of that is done with money from the state budget Political analysts are predicting no surprises for Kyrgyzstan's July 23 presidential election. Even foreign policy at the moment "“ US air base- has worked for the benefit of incumbent president. The US and Russia both have military bases in the strategically important Central Asian nation.  

The Central Asian states first developed under a centralized communist regime do not seem to be committed to Islamic way of life except practicing some formalities. Kyrgyzstan a close ally of Russia has allowed, on Moscow instructions, US terror forces to legally establish air base. Russia also owns similar bases in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere.. Thus the central Asian Muslim nations look to both USA plus terror West and Russia that has killed innocent Muslims. In the name of democracy it underwent a poll recently. Bakiyev was widely expected to hold on to the presidency, though his main opponent Atambayev promised to fight corruption and reduce the president's powers. Bakiyev says his policies are aimed at gaining as much as possible for the people of Kyrgyzstan, but it remains one of the poorest economies in the former Soviet Union. Bakiyev is expected to continue courting support from both the U.S. and Russia.

Bakiyev came to power four years ago off the back of a popular uprising which became known as the Tulip Revolution. But all revolution has given to people are corruption and crime. He had pledged to conduct free and fair elections, but his political opponents and monitors fraud and claim their supporters were threatened in the run-up to the election. The support of both USA and Russia for the present regime has got the Kyrgyz in cross-roads. Needless to add, looking to the anti-Islamic West for guidance for solving the problems in Islamic nations is ridiculous.

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Specialist on State Terrorism

Independent Researcher in International Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India, a fraud and terror nation in South Asia.