Kyrgyzstan referendum 'transparent and peaceful'

International observers today praised Kyrgyzstan’s constitutional referendum, saying the vote was conducted in a transparent and remarkably peaceful manner despite a lingering climate of fear after ethnic purges.

While the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recognised some shortcomings in the vote, its approval was the final stamp of legitimacy for the interim authorities who came to power after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in mass protests in April.

More than two thirds of the 2.7 million eligible to vote in the Central Asian nation overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that reduces presidential power and hands more authority to parliament. The referendum was seen as a barometer of national trust in interim President Roza Otunbayeva’s rule.

Many feared the referendum would reignite the kind of violence that saw hundreds of ethnic Uzbeks killed and many thousands more displaced earlier this month when majority Kyrgyz rampaged through minority Uzbek neighbourhoods in the country’s south.

“Considering the extremely difficult environment in which the referendum took place – only weeks after the violence in Osh and Jalal-Abad – the provisional government and other authorities should be commended for organising a remarkably peaceful process,” said Boris Frlec, head of the OSCE observation mission.

Shortcomings the group noted included a lack of safeguards against multiple voting, with voters not always checked for ink, and polling panels at times being unaware of procedures.

“The pervasive atmosphere of fear and intimidation in parts of the south, compounded by arrests of prominent public figures of the Uzbek community, may have dissuaded some voters from casting their ballots,” the statement said.

Ms Otunbayeva said she will be inaugurated as a caretaker president and form her government, and parliamentary elections will be held in October.

Rampages by ethnic majority Kyrgyz mobs in southern Kyrgyzstan this month killed as many as 2,000 people and forced 400,000 ethnic Uzbeks to temporarily flee.

The provisional authorities had accused Mr Bakiyev’s followers of instigating the attacks to try to stop the referendum, a charge Mr Bakiyev, now living in Belarus, denies. Uzbeks have mostly supported the interim government, while Kyrgyz in the south backed Mr Bakiyev, whose regime was seen as corrupt.