Kyrgyz CEC refutes reports of withdrawal of election cmmssn members.

7/10 Tass 170

BISHKEK, October 7 (Itar-Tass) - Chairman of the Kyrgyz Central
Election Commission on elections and referendums (CEC) Akylbek Sariev
hopes that political parties will refrain from putting pressure on members
of electron commissions during parliamentary elections, scheduled in the
country on October 10.
He made this statement here on Thursday in an interview with
representatives from Russian news agencies.
According to the chairman, the CEC has not received such signals so
far. "There is no specific information so far; there is some talk in the
streets," he added. "Therefore, we hope that nobody will want to put
pressure on us." He reckons that there is no need for political parties to
resort to such illegal actions, since election commissions are only "a
calculating mechanism".
"Our work is just to collect data, to sum up them and hand over,"
Sariev continued. In theory, the CEC has no right and cannot even to
change data on voting results."
He also assured that the CEC has no data that in the south of the
republic, Kyrgyz population demands that Uzbeks should refrain from the
coming voting. This rumour was circulated in the country several days ago,
and even several articles were printed in local newspapers on this point.
"Such things cannot be said openly; this can be done only by individual
persons," the Kyrgyz CEC head said, replying to a Tass question.
He noted at the same time that In Kyrgyzstan, "the right to vote is
not a mandatory norm". "This is the right of every voter: in principle he
can vote and can refrain," he explained. "This can be done by a citizen,
living in the north and by a citizen, living in the south. Therefore,
there is no need for accentuating attention on this."
Sariev also refuted reports on mass withdrawal of people from election
commissions several days before the elections. "There were cases of
withdrawal from commissions," he admitted. "But at the same time, we had a
relatively big reserve in forming commissions, since there were many
people, willing to participate."
A total of 29 political parties contest 120 seats in the new Kyrgyz
parliament. For this purpose, they have to hurdle the five-percent barrier
and to collect at least 0.5 percent of votes from the number of registered
voters in each of seven regions of the country. According to experts, in
real fact, this can be done by no more than six-nine parties.
-0-bur


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