One and a half months are left before the next parliamentary elections. They will be held on November 28 this year. A large-scale political event requires high organization and today the task is to ensure all conditions for holding open and fair elections. Experts are confident that the conditions for open and fair elections have been created. Bribery will be difficult and dangerous.
President Sadyr Japarov called on the current deputies, re-running for parliament, to hold open and fair elections. According to the head of state, he will have the strength and courage to stop the use of administrative resources.
How the parliamentary elections will be organized in the country, how ready the domestic electoral system is today, in general, whether the attitude towards the elections has changed and, most importantly, whether the confidence of citizens in the domestic electoral system has grown, – Chairman of the CEC of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurzhan Shildabekova.
Democratic and free elections are key to the well-being of any country
In accordance with the legislation, the electoral process has its own stages. Since the appointment of the date of the elections, two main processes have been launched – on the voter lists and the nomination of candidates, which has already been completed.
Voters and candidates are the main subjects for creating conditions for which freedom and democratic elections are assessed.
All efforts of state bodies, local self-government bodies should be focused on creating conditions for these two entities.
The main indicator of fair elections is that everyone who wanted to vote could participate and vote freely, and everyone who wanted to vote as candidates had the opportunity to compete on equal legal terms and exercise the right to be elected.
Creating conditions for voters
The conditions for free expression of will include the criterion for the availability of voting. Polling stations should be convenient for various categories of citizens, such as persons with disabilities.
The CEC, within the framework of ensuring the passive suffrage of citizens with disabilities, generates a Card for Needs , which is transferred to local self-government bodies and territorial departments of state bodies to take measures to ensure the accessibility of the route of movement of persons with disabilities from their place of residence to the polling station by organizing a social taxi, attracting work of volunteers, sign language interpreters, installation of a call button, etc.
According to the Map of Needs, as of April 2021, the total number of citizens with disabilities was 20187, which is 1,902 more voters with disabilities compared to the early presidential elections on January 10, 2021.
For such categories as military personnel, special measures are taken: analysis of the availability of documents, inclusion in the voter lists, etc.
Accessibility, free expression and reliable vote count
As a result of the reform of the electoral system and the introduction of new technologies, conditions have been created in the country to ensure the free expression of the will of citizens, the secrecy of voting is guaranteed by the state. But due to other violations in the previous elections – this is an administrative resource, pressure, coercion and bribery of votes, which indirectly distorted the voting results, not reflecting the real preferences of citizens, we were not able to fully assess the achieved reliability of counting the voting results.
Although it is the most important duty of the state to ensure that the fate of the elections is decided by the people by their vote, we have this component. Together with the government, we have comprehensively analyzed all the shortcomings, and we are working on them together.
With regard to candidates, it is also very important to ensure conditions for equal participation in elections, to ensure equal treatment in case of violation by candidates. Because we were faced with the fact that there was no appropriate response from law enforcement agencies to certain candidates for their violations in certain years. This was also analyzed, the political will was declared to ensure equal conditions for everyone to participate in the election campaign.
In addition, we must maximally help candidates and parties to convey their program goals to voters. It should be borne in mind that elections are held according to a proportional system with open lists, there are a lot of election subjects, these are not only parties with rigid lists, but also individual candidates on each list.
Maximum information is also part of the state’s obligations to create equal legal conditions for candidates; we are working on this set of measures.
Interaction of the CEC with other electoral participants
To assist election commissions in the implementation of these tasks, the Republican headquarters was created, which operates in a new format. The fact that the Secretary of the Security Council was appointed the head of the Republican Staff shows that elections in our country are becoming a factor in the security of the state.
In all regions, at headquarters meetings, we brought together all levels of leaders – from regional leadership to ayil okmotu, all subjects that are involved in the elections in one way or another. Along with this, on the same day, a regional meeting of all law enforcement agencies, training for regional regional media centers and the media was held. We conducted trainings even for bank employees on the financial transparency of elections, as well as mandatory for candidates to familiarize them with all the new rules.
The main message of these events is the purity of the electoral process, its recognition by citizens as legal and fair depends not only on election commissions, every state agency, local government, law enforcement agencies, media, candidates, voters – everyone should participate in ensuring that elections are legal, free and fair. …
Therefore, the tasks were set for state bodies and LSG bodies to provide maximum assistance to the commissions in solving all organizational and material and technical issues, but at the same time to prevent any interference either in the work of the commissions or in the campaign of candidates and parties, not to act in the interests of any then parties or individual candidates. And this will be a very important contribution of government agencies to the electoral process.
Algorithms of actions in case of certain violations were discussed in detail with law enforcement agencies, an algorithm was developed for each violation. It is important that law enforcement agencies act in a timely, efficient and effective manner. If at the initial stage of the election campaign, law enforcement officers are able to promptly respond to all violations of the law that arise, this will be a very good message from the state to counter violations.
For law enforcement officers, the peculiarities of the election campaign were noted, which are that it is a short-term political, multi-subject process. The main thing is that there is an understanding both on the part of the leadership of law enforcement agencies and on the part of ordinary employees who will provide work on violations on the ground, how to make this process effective.
From the very beginning, the message was given that the state will not turn a blind eye to violations. This is a good message both for citizens that the situation is under control in terms of violations, and for candidates who can contribute in the form of compliance with the rules of the election campaign.
Information during elections
We had important meetings with the media, discussing the role of the media in the electoral process, how they can contribute. It is gratifying to note that we have an understanding that the value of information, especially in the pre-election period, lies in its reliability and timeliness.
The role of the information aspect in the course of these elections is increasing due to the fact that a new election procedure has been introduced. Citizens should receive all the necessary information about all candidates for single-mandate constituencies, information about all parties that participate, about their programs. In view of the fact that citizens vote not only for parties, but also for candidates, we, accordingly, must make efforts so that they receive information about all candidates who are on the list of parties. Therefore, the media in the regions called for active interaction so that citizens could be informed, make an informed, and most importantly, free choice of those whom they consider worthy.
Women’s and youth participation in elections
Work is ongoing with female candidates to give them more confidence to run for office.
It is also necessary to mobilize the potential of young voters. Unfortunately, in recent years, their participation has decreased, only 25% of citizens under the age of 25 participated in elections, although their potential is huge. Young voters under 30 make up over 31% of the voter list. This is 1 million 200 thousand citizens.
Source: Kyrgyz National News Agency