Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, Oct.10 / Trend, N.Tanaev /
Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission's member Eric Iryskulbekov highly assesses activity in the country's parliamentary elections, which was held today.
"I highly appreciate the activity in the elections. We expected that activity will be high, as in light of the recent events in Kyrgyzstan, many citizens wanted to vote for peace and stability," Iryskulbekov told Trend in an interview.
Voting in the parliamentary elections in all 2,289 polling stations on the territory of Kyrgyzstan ended at 20:00 local time.
According to Iryskulbekov, in general, the elections were held relatively peacefully.
"We can not say that these elections passed without violations, there were violations. Mainly, there were complaints on the unlawful use of absentee ballots, on the facts of bringing voters to the polling stations, as well as validity and compliance with the law of citizens' inclusion in the supplementary lists. Now these complaints are recorded in election commissions. The voting results will be announced after considering all the complaints," Iryskulbekov said.
He said 1,212,334 voters voted as of 17:00, which comprised 42.5 percent of the total number. The voting results for 18:00 will be announced by 9:00 tomorrow, the CEC member said.
He noted that the situation can change after the counting of the votes.
"As you know, the parties must win 5 percent of the vote nationwide and at least 0.5 percent of the vote in each of Kyrgyzstan's regions and two cities. So, surprises are expected tomorrow," Iryskulbekov said.
The CEC earlier noted that in accordance with adopted amendments in the legislation, voter turnout will not affect the elections' outcome. Thus, whatever the turnout, the elections in Kyrgyzstan will be declared valid. Therefore, the main issue is the fact that which parties will able to win 5 percent of the vote nationwide and at least 0.5 percent of the vote in each of Kyrgyzstan's regions and two main cities - Bishkek and Osh.