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Kyrgyz Parliamentary Elections, 2005The 2005 Kyrgyz parliamentary elections were held in February and March 2005. Over 400 candidates ran for the new 75-member unicameral legislative assembly. There were two rounds of voting, on 27 February and 13 March. According to media reports, only six seats were won by the opposition, although most candidates were officially independents. According to international observers, the elections fell short of international standards for democratic elections in a number of important areas. The belief that the election had been rigged by the government led to widespread protests, culminating in a revolution on 24 March in which President Askar Akayev was overthrown and left the country. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sent 60 observers to monitor the runoffs. In its initial assessment the group said the second-round of voting showed "some technical improvements over the first round" but stressed that there remained "significant shortcomings." The OSCE had said the first round fell short of international standards in many areas. Election observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) disagreed. They hailed the runoff elections as well organized, free, and fair. CIS observers praised local authorities for showing restraint and competence in dealing with political unrest in several regions. The CIS is generally seen as controlled by the Russian Federation, whose President, Vladimir Putin, supports the incumbent authoritarian regimes in all the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. By the time of the revolution only incomplete results of the elections had been announced by the Election Commission. The revolution makes in unlikely that more will be announced. The new authorities have said that fresh elections will be held within three months. After the overthrow of Akayev's government, interim President Kurmanbek Bakiev announced that new presidential and legislative elections would be held on 26 June. He also announced that he would be a candidate for President. But the OSCE envoy to Kyrgyzstan, Markus Mueller, said this was too short a time to organise polls. If fresh elections are held, it will first have to be decided whether to hold them according to the new system introduced by Akayev for the February elections, or whether to revert to the previous system. See also External links
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