Tense Kyrgyzstan holds historic referendum

High turnout despite months of political turmoil, ethnic violence

Interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva arrived in a motorcade amid high security in the southern city of Osh, the epicentre of the violence. Smiling and appearing relaxed in a bright purple jacket, she cast her vote in a local university.

“Our country today is on the brink of great danger, but the results of this referendum will show that the country is united and that the people are one. It will stand strong on its own feet and move forward,” Otunbayeva said after casting her vote.

The United States and Russia say they would support a strong government to prevent the turmoil spreading throughout ex-Soviet Central Asia, a strategic region bordering Afghanistan where all countries have until now been run by authoritarian presidents.

Diplomatic recognition

The referendum calls on voters to support changes to the constitution that would devolve power from the president to a prime minister, paving the way for parliamentary elections in October and diplomatic recognition for the interim government.

The central election commission said 43.14 per cent of the national electorate had voted by 3:00 pm (0900 GMT), seven hours after polling booths opened across the country of 5.3 million people. There is no minimum turnout requirement.

Under the new charter, Otunbayeva — the first woman to lead a Central Asian state — would be interim president until the end of 2011. Parliamentary elections would be held every five years and the president limited to a single six-year term.

Otunbayeva, a former ambassador to the United States and Britain, took power after a revolt in April overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Though from the south, she has struggled to gain control of the region, which is Bakiyev’s family stronghold.

The bloodshed also deepened divisions between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks who have a roughly equal share of the population in the south. Many ethnic Uzbeks say they were targeted in the violence and are loath to support what they see as a Kyrgyz initiative.

Meeting place

Many Uzbeks, however, turned out to vote, some setting off from homes that were burned out in the violence. Friends, who had not seen each other since the bloodshed began on June 10, embraced in polling-station queues in neighbourhoods of Osh.

Election officials accompanied by armed guards carried transparent ballot boxes to locals who were too afraid to visit the polling stations, ticking off names as the boxes filled up.
The 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined to send observers to Osh and Jalalabad, another southern city hit by violence, due to security concerns.

Speaking in the capital Bishkek, Janez Lenarcic, head of the OSCE’s election monitoring arm, said the organisation had concerns about the referendum but was hoping for a high turnout.

“There are inconsistencies and shortcomings. Our understanding is that the turnout requirement has been dropped for this referendum. Nevertheless I think the higher the turnout the higher the legitimacy of the whole process,” he said.