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Eurasia
October 20, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Kyrgyz election may set precedents: political stability and a dominant- party system?
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Sooranbai Jeenbekov secured 54.3% of the vote in the October 15 presidential election in Kyrgyzstan, making him the outright winner of the election with no need for a second round. His victory was confirmed after an announcement from his popu- lar opponent Omurbek Babanov who accepted the official results of the election despite misgivings.
“Elections were held, one candidate got more votes than anyone else and that means he won,” Babanov said at his campaign headquarters, urging his supporters “not to succumb to provo- cations” and to “unite under” the new president “regardless of whom they supported.”
“Kyrgyzstan has demonstrated a generally positive example for holding competitive elections and a peaceful transfer of power,” Azay Guliyev, leader of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) election observation mission, which had deployed 40 international observers, said in a statement October 16.
For some experts, the election primarily rep- resented a test of Kyrgyzstan’s ability to hold another election focused around transferring power from one president to another without the ex-Soviet country sinking into a third revolution, following the uprisings of 2005 and 2010, in which the nation toppled the autocratic governments of Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, respec- tively. The election is seen as proving that the
Incumbent Atambayev addresses the media on polling day.
country will not move on to a road that will lead to a failed state.
Regardless of his encouragement for the peaceful transfer of power, Babanov nevertheless had his doubts about the fairness of the election and so did the OSCE.
Babanov won only 33.4% of the vote, the results showed. Such an outcome was in contrast to widespread expectations that neither Jeenbe-
kov nor Babanov would break the 40% threshold required to win the election within the first round, something which would have led to a guaranteed a victory for Babanov in a second round. At the same time, a win in the first round of the elections was seen as the only chance Jeenbekov had of victory.
The authorities led by an SDP-controlled majority coalition in parliament as well as current Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, who is also an SDP member, led a dramatic campaign to dis- credit Babanov in a bid to get Jeenbekov elected in the first round. Election day itself was filled with negative PR and arrests, which, if amounting to substantial voter repression, might have im- pacted the outcome of the vote.
Jeenbekov, who received public backing from Atambayev, is seen by some as Atambayev’s stooge in the president's bid to continue ruling from the shadows.