Svobodna Dnevnik

[Hadash]

El Correo Internacional

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Kyrzbekistan: Socialist government wins large majority
By: Milena Brovina
Published: Septem 11, 1585


Kyrzbekistani citizens counting votes in a northwestern electoral district.

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The ruling Socialist People's Party, in power since the proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan in 1568, won the federal elections by a landslide, obtaining 54% of the vote and 222 of 399 deputies.

Although the Socialist People's Party was expected to win the elections, it obtained a larger than predicted majority, enough to control comfortably the Congress of People's Deputies, the Lower House of the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan. It is their best result since 1569, which is believed to strengthen the leadership of Damir Kazbekur, Chairman of the People's Council since 1579. In the 1581 federal elections, the Socialist People's Party had lost the majority in the lower house, forming a coalition government witt the center-left Kyrzbek Labour Party which lasted until 1584, when the Socialist People's Party was forced to form a minority government.

The Democratic Social Forum, an elected coalition formed mostly by ethnic Arberian political parties, ended second for first time, obtaining their best result, with 16.1% of the vote, almost six points more than four years ago. The leadership of the Arberian coalition hopes that this result will boost their chances to win the state elections in the state of Kombash-Kenlyukya, to be hold next year.

On the contrary, it was a disappointing result for the Kyrzbek National Party, which obtained 15.8% of the vote, and displaced from being the second most voted political party by merely a few thousands votes. The Kyrzbek National Party, an Akhadist political party established in 1570, which was created and supported by members of the controversial Akhadic Society merely improved two hundred thousands votes regarding the federal elections in 1581, a result highly disappointing as the Akhadist political party hoped, if not winning the elections, at least reducing considerably the distance between them and the Socialist People's Party.

The explanations for their failure may be diverse. Since 1582, the Kyrzbek National Party is governing the state of Yartushia, in eastern Kyrzbekistan, in coalition with the Conservative Reform Coalition, another Akhadic conservative political party, and KNP Governor Elbrus Almasur may have frightened many voters, as consequence of ultra-conservative legislation which has caused conflict with the federal government and social unrest in the region. Ilgus Irekur, leader of the Kyrzbek National Party has also denounced the government's de facto monopoly over the national media and a "Fear Campaign" which may have pushed many former Kyrzbek Labour Party and moderate voters to vote for the Socialists this time, fearing either an Akhadist-inspired federal government or political chaos in the country, the latter a still important concern for many in the nation, as the country experienced a 9-year civil war between 1559 and 1568.

However, other more concerning explanations were gives, as Ilgus Irekur denounced irregularities and voting fraud by federal authorities. Although the evidences of this so far were limited, it was pointed out the results in several districts in the state of Uzekyak, where the Socialist People's Party obtained more than 70% of the vote, up to 84.1% in the Yasheyaz district. While some of these results were explained by the collapse of the Kyrzbek Labour Party which collapsed from 40% to 9%, it is unexpected such results in some of these districts, despite the state remains one of the strongholds of the Socialist People's Part most polls expected a result for the Socialist People's Party lower by 10-12 points than the official ones. However, the federal government has denied any wrongdoing or fraud, and accussed the Akhadist political party of using smearing tactics. The rest of the opposition, although demanding the Electoral Commission to investigate this allegations seriously, were more prudent and avoided any direct accusation.

Governor Elbrus Almasur went as far as -the day after the elections- of proposing a "March to Ayduramazan", in order to demand the federal government a repeat of the elections or, at least, an independent investigation on the issue. However, this was rejected later by the Kyrzbek National Party leadership, which is not willing to push toward a direct confrontation with the federal government, at least until the 1586 state elections.

The main losers of the federal elections were, however, the center-left Kyrzbek Labour Party, which obtained only 4% of the vote, obtaining their worst electoral result ever. If the result repeated in the next year elections, the center-left political party may only obtain representatives in half of the states of the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan. Khamazan Rashatur announced his resignation as General Secretary of the party last week, although this won't be official until a political meeting to be hold on late 1585.

The Socialist Revolutionary Group, an electoral coalition led by the Communist Party of Kyrzbekistan, and the Conservative Reform Coalition, an Akhadic conservative party, also obtained representation in the Congress of People's Deputies, although with a result worse that they hoped barely enough to obtain their own parliamentary group.

Although many of the ministers of the federal government have only been in office by one year and a half, Chairman of the People's Council (head of government) Damir Kazbekur may announce a minor reshuffle of the federal government in the coming weeks.