Irregularities in Kyrgyzstan Referendum Raise Major Concerns Prior to Parliamentary Elections

Kyrgyzstan’s referendum last week included major irregularities and bodes badly for the country’s democratic future, particularly in advance of upcoming parliamentary elections in December, Freedom House said today.

The referendum, held October 21, allowed citizens to vote on a new constitution and election code. However, reports from election monitors indicated incidents of massive ballot stuffing, inflated reports of voter turnout, widespread vote count violations, use of administrative resources to bring people to polling stations, and undue pressure on election observers by government officials. This calls into question the official reports of an 80% voter turnout rate and 75% approval of the new constitution. 

These findings were reported by several non-partisan observation groups, including the Kyrgyzstani NGO Taza Shailoo (Clean Elections), which deployed a network of 750 election observers to more than 30 percent of the country’s polling stations. 

“The government’s misconduct during the referendum is, sadly, another indication of declining electoral integrity in Kyrgyzstan,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House. “These reports give cause for serious concern about potential violations in the upcoming parliamentary elections on December 16th. Freedom House calls on Kyrgyzstan’s authorities to ensure that these elections will be carried out in full accord with Kyrgyzstan’s OSCE and other international commitments.”

At the end of September 2007, the Kyrgyzstani constitutional court invalidated all constitutional changes since the 2003 version; a few days later, President Bakiyev released a new version, which—along with a the new election code—was placed on the national referendum. Among other problem areas, the new constitution does not  clearly define the respective roles of parliament and the president in appointing the government, which was a major problem prior to the “tulip” revolution in 2005.

“With regard to human rights and democracy, Kyrgyzstan was considered one of the best performers in the region,” said Jeff Goldstein, Freedom House’s senior program manager for Central Asia. “Kyrgyzstan’s democratic backsliding is evidenced by the recent murder of a prominent Kyrgyz journalist, Alisher Saipov, the imprisonment of an activist, Maxsim Kuleshov, for trying to report on the referendum, and criminal libel cases against others for reporting on human rights violations.”

Kyrgyzstan is ranked Partly Free in the 2007 version of Freedom of the World, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties. The country received a rating of 5 (on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 as the lowest) for political rights and a 4 for civil liberties, and was given a downward trend arrow due to a decline in religious freedom, including a number of violent incidents involving alleged religious extremists that took place in the country’s south.

For more information on Kyrgyzstan, visit:

Freedom in the World 2007: Kyrgyzstan
Freedom of the Press 2007: Kyrgyzstan

Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expression of freedom around the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in Kyrgyzstan since the country became independent in 1991.