Kyrgyzstan to elect parliament on Sunday.

BISHKEK, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Parliamentary elections will be
organised in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday. The country's Central Election
Commission reports there will be 2,289 election stations, which will work
from eight in the morning /06:00 Moscow time/ to 20:00 /18:00 Moscow time/.
"44 more election stations will be organised abroad," the source said.
"Most of them, 18, are in Russia's 15 cities."
"According to the present legislation, it would not matter how many of
almost 2.8 million registered voters will take part in the election," the
source explained. "The elections will be considered as valid in any case."
There will be about 850 observers from 51 countries.
"We have accredited everyone who applied, most observers come from
Russia," Chairman of Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission Akylbek
Sariyev said. Representatives from over 30 international organisations,
including the OSCE, CIS and SCO, will come to observe the process.
The presence of a big number of international and local observers will
let the elections be most open and honest and will not let have the
results falsified. Besides, representatives from parties-candidates will
watch the process, too. In addition to all the measures undertaken, the
country's authorities chose not to refuse from marking thumbs with a
special invisible solution.
As a big number of parties chose to take part in the elections, the
ballot is 70 centimetres long. It contains information on the first five
names on a party's list. Kyrgyzstan's 29 parties compete for 120 seats in
the parliament.
The local authorities promise that the elections will be democratic
and will comply with international standards and that there would be no
pushing from the administration.
"These are first democratic elections over the twenty years of our
independence," an official statement of the Interim President Roza
Otunbayeva reads. "On the whole, the fight was honest and clear, and
neither the insinuations from the domestic forces, nor the accusations
that we are interested in keeping the power, could affect it."
With the events of the past six months in mind, the issue of security
is vital in the country. The local police allocate 7,000 police to guard
the election stations. About 2,800 private security will help them, too.
It was agreed that should it be necessary the defence ministry, customs
service and financial police will be able to send over their staff within
an hour to assist the police.
Most Kyrgyz political scientists say that only 6-9 parties may be
supported by the minimum of five percent.
If none of Kyrgyzstan's 29 political parties receives five percent of
votes, there will be another round of the elections, Kyrgyzstan's Chairman
of the Central Election Commission Akylbek Sariyev said.
"Technically this scenario is possible, and then we shall have to
organise another round of elections," he said.
However the situation may get more complicated if a party receives
more than 65 seats out of the parliament's 120 seats. The present
legislations prohibits such situation, but it would not explain to who the
party should pass those extra seats. It will be the Central Election
Commission's decision to share extra seats with the other parties, which
would be represented in the parliament.


.Arnold Schwarzenegger comes for forum in Skolkovo.

MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Governor of California Arnold
Schwarzenegger arrives in Moscow on Sunday to participate in the
Russian-American forum - the Global Innovative Partnership - on October 11
in Skolkovo.
Schwarzenegger will head a delegation of leading businessmen and
managers of venture funds from the Silicon Valley. The main target of the
forum is to use the experience of the Silicon Valley in the organisation
of global technology companies.
Earlier, on June 22-24 of the current year, Russia's President Dmitry
Medvedev went to California during his visit to the United States.
Schwarzenegger said then that American companies might help Russian
counterparts in the organisation of the Skolkovo centre. He expressed
confidence that the cooperation may be mutually beneficial.
Besides the meetings in Skolkovo, Arnold Schwarzenegger will meet with
Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina and Minister of
Education and Science Andrei Fursenko. He will also visit the Rusnano
Company.
On Wednesday, October 13, he will visit Kazan, where Tatarstan will
present its investment potential. American investors will be able to see
the republic's innovations infrastructures.

.URGENT - Soyuz docks with ISS.

KOROLYOV, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft
with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka and U.S.
astronaut Scott Kelly docked with the International Space Station on
Sunday.
With their arrival, there will be six members of the crew.

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