BISHKEK — Some 250 people — prominent opposition politicians, lawmakers, and rights activists among them — gathered today outside the offices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bishkek to ask for help to protect freedom of speech in the country, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Protesters said the government has closed down the last avenues of freedom of speech after blocking access to several websites last week, including centrasia.ru, ferghana.ru, and Azattyk, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service website, as well as taking Azattyk’s television broadcasts off the air.

Demonstrators carried placards reading «Take Your Hands Off the Truth,» «You Can’t Close Every Single Mouth,» and «Freedom to Azattyk.»

Opposition lawmakers Roza Otunbaeva and Irina Karamushkina, Ak Shumkar opposition party leader Temur Sariev, and the head of the Ata Meken opposition party, Omurbek Tekebaev, were among the prominent political figures who joined the demonstration.

«Journalists have been killed [and independent] media outlets have been closed,» Otunbaeva told RFE/RL. «We consider the [Kyrgyz] government to be harming stability.»

The OSCE office in Bishkek told the demonstrators their message will be conveyed to the organization’s representative on freedom of the media, who monitors violations of freedom of expression in OSCE member states and promotes full compliance with democratic principles of freedom of press and expression.

Access to the popular news websites has been blocked since March 10. Kyrgyz rights activists last week condemned the development as a coordinated attack by authorities on freedom of speech.

Since March 1, RFE/RL’s affiliate partners — Radio OK, Radio Most, Radio Royal, and Radio Almaz-Naryn — have not been re-broadcasting the programs of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service. Also, the private television company Manas Janyrygy (Echo of Manas) stopped broadcasting RFE/RL’s television shows in Kyrgyz. The affiliates told RFE/RL they had to stop broadcasting the programs due to pressure from the government.

However, Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov told RFE/RL at a press conference in Bishkek today that he is unaware of the situation. He promised RFE/RL’s correspondent help to solve the issue, adding that RFE/RL’s leadership should send him an official letter regarding the situation.

Demonstrators went beyond attacks on media freedoms today, calling on the government to be held accountable for the nation’s income, including gold revenues, Kyrgyzstan’s key export asset.

Today’s protest comes two days ahead of nationwide antigovernment rallies by opposition supporters planned on March 17.

President Kurmanbek Bakiev, who swept to power amid popular protests in 2005, has come under extensive criticism by opponents for failing to institute reforms and for widespread corruption and nepotism. Bakiev’s popularity suffered another blow after he appointed his son, Maksim, to a top post overseeing the country’s economic affairs last November.

Several thousand people demonstrated last week in the central city of Naryn to demand that Maksim Bakiev leave the country.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Rally_Supporting_Media_Freedom_RFERL_Held_In_Bishkek/1984184.html

DUSHANBE (Reuters) — Tajikistan’s opposition threatened today to call street protests to challenge the result of a parliamentary election in the impoverished nation bordering Afghanistan.

Any unrest in Tajikistan could worry the West, which uses the Muslim nation of seven million as part of a northern route supplying NATO troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Western monitors have denounced the February 28 vote for failing democratic standards. President Emomali Rahmon’s party won 54 out of 63 seats in the lower house of parliament.

The opposition Islamic Revival Party — Central Asia’s only official Islamic party — won only two seats and has vowed to challenge the result in court.

«If the courts take unfair decisions, we can organize public acts of protest as well as other actions within the country’s legislation,» said the party’s leader Mukhiddin Kabiri.

Speaking at a party meeting, he said he would take legal action as soon as this week but gave no further details.

Kabiri’s party is a reformed wing of the once-powerful United Tajik Opposition which fought Rahmon’s government in a 1992-1997 civil war. More than 100,000 people died in that war.

Spurred by an economic crisis, discontent has been on the rise in Tajikistan in the past year because of growing poverty and crumbling Soviet-era infrastructure.

The inflow of remittances, one of the country’s key sources of foreign currency, dropped almost by a third in 2009.

Despite growing hardship, outward gestures of protest remain rare in a country where Rahmon tolerates little dissent.

The election monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on March 1 that serious irregularities meant Tajikistan’s parliamentary election failed to meet basic democratic standards.

The opposition has said it had evidence of mass vote rigging. The central election commission has rejected all criticism, saying it had no evidence of large-scale violations.

Rahmon has ruled Tajikistan, the poorest nation in the ex- Soviet Union with an average monthly wage of $70, since 1992.

Signaling a possible succession plan to his long rule, Rahmon’s 23-year-old son Rustami Emomali was elected into the capital Dushanbe’s city council in a separate election held on February 28, the central election commission said.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Tajik_Opposition_Threatens_Protests_After_Poll/1973551.html

(RFE/RL) — Europe’s main election watchdog says Tajikistan’s parliamentary and local elections on February 28 failed to meet basic democratic standards.

«I’m happy that election day took place in a generally good atmosphere, but I’m even more disappointed that these elections failed on many basic democratic standards,» said Pia Christmas-Moller, vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In a statement, the OSCE said its hundreds of observers had «highlighted serious irregularities on election day, including a high prevalence of family and proxy voting and cases of ballot box stuffing,» claims seconded by opposition politicians.

«Such serious irregularities weaken genuine democratic progress,» Christmas-Moller said.

In a report ahead of the vote, the OSCE had expressed concern over a lack of transparency and accountability among election officials. The organization also cited reports from several political parties alleging that their campaigning had been obstructed by the authorities.

Tajikistan has never held an election judged free and fair by Western observers.

According to the Central Election Commission, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s ruling People’s Democratic Party won 71.7 percent of the vote. The party held more than 50 of the 63 seats in the outgoing parliament and its leader has ruled the former Soviet republic for more than 17 years.

The opposition Islamic Revival Party and pro-government Communists also secured some seats in the lower house, it said.

Official final results will be announced in two weeks.

Rahmon’s 23-year-old son, Rustam Emomali, widely seen as a successor to his father, is also using the election to launch his political career, seeking a seat on the city council of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

Electoral authorities in Tajikistan said more than 85 percent of some 3.5 million eligible voters cast ballots.

Rahmatillo Zoirov, the head of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, complained that in Dushanbe, his party’s observers were made to sit in corners of the polling stations and were unable to keep an eye on the process.

«In several polling stations we detected illegal activities such as multiple voting. They [the authorities] are not allowing filming or taking pictures in the polling stations. At the same time they have restricted the functions of voting monitors,» Zoirov told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.

Young Leadership And Swelling Ranks

The Communist Party and the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) have emerged as the main contenders to the ruling People’s Democratic Party. Both parties held a small number of seats in the outgoing assembly.

The IRP is Central Asia’s only Islamist political party that is registered to work legally. With its young leadership and swelling ranks, the party aimed to use the election to strengthen its representation in the parliament.

But despite campaigning hard, IRP leader Muhiddin Kabiri says he is discouraged by what he saw on election day.

«We hoped that these elections would be better in comparison to the elections of 2005. But unfortunately, according to reports we received in our election headquarters from polling stations, authorities in districts are still not ready for transparent and democratic elections,» Kabiri said.

News agencies quoted Kabiri as saying his supporters have registered numerous violations, including multiple voting and obstruction of the work of electoral observers and poll workers. Kabiri said he believed his party could have won 10 seats in parliament in a fair vote. The party has two seats in the outgoing legislature.

Javharshoh Himmatshoev, a voter in Dushanbe, says that despite being registered to vote, his five-member family didn’t receive voting cards. «Are they blind to lose five names? You can forget one name, two names but five is too much,» he says.

Despite the criticism of his opponents, Rahmon called the elections an important political event to promote the country’s economic and social life. While voting close to his official residence in Dushanbe, Rahmon told journalists that he prefers to keep quiet on election day and will answer questions later.

«From the point view of improvement of the international image of Tajikistan, the more transparent, more free, and more democratic parliamentary elections are, the more important they for the people and the country of Tajikistan,» Rahmon said in response to a question from RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Early_Fraud_Allegations_Emerge_In_Tajik_Vote/1970460.html

Kyrgyz human rights activist Nematillo Botakoziev has been reported missing in Dushanbe, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Botakoziev, 42, has not been seen since February 26 when he was at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Dushanbe applying for refugee status.

Botakoziev had applied for UNHCR protection after reportedly being repeatedly harassed by police in the southern Kyrgyz town of Nookat since 2004.

He said he was being persecuted by the police because of issues related to his Uzbek wife, Mavlyuda Abdulazizova, who had been sentenced more than a decade ago in Uzbekistan on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.

She was pardoned in July 1999 and fled to Kyrgyzstan, where she met and married Botakoziev.

In September 2008, Nookat residents attacked the local administration building to protest an official refusal to allow a public celebration of the Muslim holiday of Eid. Botakoziev was accused of organizing the protest and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He fled to Tajikistan and denies any involvement in the protest.

Botakoziev was also an associate of Kyrgyz journalist Alisher Saipov, who was shot dead in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh in 2007.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_Human_Rights_Activist_Reported_Missing/1971735.html

The governing People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan is cruising to victory in the country’s parliamentary election with almost 72 percent of the vote, according to a preliminary tally. Western election monitors, however, expressed disappointment with the conduct of the polling, saying that fraud boosted the governing party’s winning margin.

The PDPT did not face a strong test from opposition parties in the February 28 election, in which all 63 seats in the lower house of parliament were up for grabs. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Even so, the election was marred by irregularities, prompting opposition parties to call for an investigation.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, public interest in the elections seemed tepid. But authorities claimed 85 percent of the country’s 3.5 million registered voters turned out to cast ballots.

A preliminary report issued March 1 by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) contained a dose of disapproval. «Despite certain positive steps, Tajikistan’s parliamentary elections failed to meet many key OSCE commitments,» the statement said.
Pia Christmas-Moller — special coordinator of the OSCE short-term observers, and vice-president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly — said she was «disappointed that these elections failed on many democratic standards.» In 2008, Christmas-Moller participated in an OSCE observation mission that monitored the conduct of the US presidential election, won by Barack Obama.

«Such serious irregularities weaken genuine democratic progress, Christmas-Moller added during a March 1 news conference, referring to the Tajik vote. «There is still a long way to go, and hopefully the new parliament will take up this challenge.»

The US Embassy in Dushanbe also criticized the electoral process, noting that «the vote was beset by procedural irregularities and fraud, including cases of ballot stuffing.»

Representatives of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), which holds two seats in the outgoing parliament, and which had hoped to form a larger block in the next legislature, say they will protest the results of the February 28 voting.

«Even in conditions of tough competition with the ruling party, our party hopes to get seven or eight seats in the new parliament,» party Chairman Muhiddin Kabiri told the ITAR-TASS news agency on March 1. «Otherwise, we will file a lawsuit in court within the law to defend each vote given to [our] party,» he added.

Rakhmatillo Zoirov, chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDPT), which currently does not hold any seats in parliament, echoed Kabiri’s criticism.

There «are violations involving ballot papers which were marked in advance of vote counting. Reports about all violations registered by our party’s observers will be prepared and given to the relevant bodies in the near future,» he told Asia Plus on March 1.

Prior to the vote, at a two-day briefing held February 26-27 and organized by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), opposition leaders expressed concerns over campaign violations.

Leaders of several opposition parties complained that PDPT loyalists dominate membership in district elections commissions. These purportedly independent bodies are charged with overseeing a fair vote. The US Embassy, in its post-elections assessment, described «cases of bias by local election officials in favor of the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.» Other international observers suggested that the members of the Central Commission for Elections and Referendums (CCER) unfairly supported the PDPT.

«All executive officials in every administrative unit countrywide are appointed personally by the president [who is also the PDPT chairman]; and, virtually all of them are members of PDPT,» said IRPT leader Kabiri. «It gives them opportunities to interfere and breed impediments.»

Kabiri noted that his party’s activists faced continuous harassment during the campaign. He added that he personally had to work to secure the release of four young men on February 25, members of IRPT arrested by municipal policemen in Dushanbe simply for wearing blue scarves, a new symbol of the party.

During the pre-election campaign, free-speech advocates complained about numerous press freedom violations. In early 2010, three senior judges filed lawsuits against five private Tajik newspapers demanding exorbitant financial compensation for the «defamation» of their «dignity and professional honor.» [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Such cases were designed to quiet the fledgling independent press during the parliamentary campaign, said Nuriddin Karshibaev, chairman of the Tajik National Association of Independent Media (NANSMIT). «The court hearings are postponed until the elections are fully over, but the fact of persecution of the private media seriously spoils Tajikistan’s adherence to the principles of democracy,» Karshibaev told EurasiaNet.

Editor’s Note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance journalist based in Dushanbe.
Posted March 1, 2010 © Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org

Konstantin Parshin, EurasiaNet

Источник: http://eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav030110.shtml

According to Tajikistan’s election officials, President Emomali Rahmon’s People’s Democratic Party is on course to win the vast majority of 63 seats in the next parliament — winning nearly 72 percent of the vote.

For the first time, the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) appears to have moved ahead of the Communist Party. Partial results give the party 7.7 percent of the vote. The Communists were in third place with 7.2 percent. Other opposition parties, including the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats, likely failed to pass the 5 percent threshold needed to get a seat.

But for the first time, election officials say two other small, progovernment parties — the Economic Reforms Party and the Agrarian Party — possibly made it into parliament.

The results released today are from the 22 seats decided through a party-list system — considered the best chance for opposition parties to win any parliamentary seat. The rest — 41 seats — are decided through votes in single-mandate constituencies. Those results have yet to be announced.

The official turnout in the February 28 vote in the impoverished former Soviet nation was high as usual, reaching 87 percent.

‘Serious Irregularities’

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) cited «serious irregularities» on election day, including «a high prevalence of family and proxy voting and cases of ballot-box stuffing.»

In a statement, Pia Christmas-Moeller, special cocoordinator of the OSCE’s short-term observers and vice president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said: «I’m happy that election day took place in a generally good atmosphere, but I’m even more disappointed that these elections failed on many basic democratic standards.»

OSCE observers delivered their scathing report about the elections in Dushanbe today.
The ruling party’s landslide victory did not come as a surprise to a majority of voters. Neither did the OSCE’s criticism of the elections.

Rahmon has been ruling the Central Asian nation with an iron fist since 1992, handily winning every presidential election, while his party has held an absolute majority in each parliament since a party-based elections system was introduced in 2000.

Each Tajik election since then has been criticized by the OSCE for failing to meet democratic requirements.

Opposition parties were swift in their criticism of the election, saying the vote was far from transparent.

Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the IRP — seen by many as the main rival to the ruling party — accused election officials of facilitating multiple voting and of not allowing IRP monitors to vote count. At least one IRP candidate, Ashurali Abdulhaev, abruptly withdrew from the parliamentary race two days before the election, saying he was «threatened by two unknown assailants in the middle of the night.»

The Social Democratic Party, which has never made it into parliament, said «the names of all but one candidate – from the ruling party – were scored out in voting ballots» in some districts.

Attracting New Supporters

While the ruling party’s victory was a foregone conclusion, many Tajiks were curious to know who would come in second.

In the past two legislatures, the Communists were the second-largest party, once holding a parliamentary faction with five MPs. Despite its occasional criticism of the ruling party, the Communist Party has never been considered a real opposition to Rahmon. Its presence in the parliament as the second-largest party suited the ruling party, as well as staunch supporters of the secular system in the country.

However, the IRP has managed to enhance its presence in society since the last election in 2005, attracting new supporters among a young generation increasingly dissatisfied with a lack of jobs and opportunities. Investing money and effort in the election campaign, IRP leaders said they were «eyeing to form at least a parliamentary faction» in the next Majlisi Namoyandagon (Chamber of Representatives).

Even its critics admit the Islamic party was the most active political group during the election campaign, trying to gain support even in areas that traditionally backed the ruling party or other secular groups.

Democracy Versus Secular System

In a country that borders Afghanistan and shares the same language and culture with Iran, the IRP’s growing influence in Tajik society has caused anxiety and suspicion. Despite an increasing respect for Islamic values, most Tajiks still firmly favor a secular system.

The IRP is the only officially registered Islamic party in Central Asia. Any success by the party will be seen by Tajiks as a victory for democracy but also as a real threat to the secular system of governance.

Faridun Ali, an expert on domestic politics in the northern town of Khujand, tells RFE/RL that boosting its presence in the parliament even by one additional seat would be the first step for the IRP in its «obvious long-term plan.»

However, echoing a sentiment shared by many, Ali says that, despite all its efforts, «in the foreseeable future, in the next decade, the IRP will not be able to form an Islamic government or to reach a majority in the parliament, even if we had democratic elections.»

«The majority of voters were raised during Soviet times. These people’s mentality is a big barrier for the IRP to gain popular support,» Ali says. «Besides, the IRP doesn’t have a strong program to convince people to change their minds.»

Final results, including the vote count from single-mandate constituencies as well as the exact number of seats won by each party, are expected in the coming days. A run-off vote is to take place in at least one district.

Farangis Najibullah, RFE/RL

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/Presidential_Party_Wins_Tajik_Landslide_But_Who_Came_In_Second/1971306.