Southern Kyrgyz Mayor Strengthened by Local Polls

Melisbek Myrzakmatov, the powerful mayor of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, has come out stronger from a local election in which his supporters won nearly half the seats on the city council.

The result was the most noteworthy outcome of the March 4 local elections held across Kyrgyzstan that went off fairly quietly, including in southern areas still recovering from ethnic violence in 2010. Municipal ballots were held in Osh, in the eastern town of Karakol and in Tokmak in the north of Kyrgyzstan, with elections also held for 13 district councils around the country.

The only significant trouble was in Karakol, where a mob attacked the mayor's office in protest at the outcome of the March 4 ballot.

Non-government groups monitoring the polls recorded some fraud and irregularities including "carousel voting", where busloads of people were taken around different polling stations to vote repeatedly; ink being removed from people's thumbs so that they could vote more than once; and incomplete electoral rolls.

Nonetheless, when the Taza Shailoo election monitoring group and the Kylym Shamy Centre for Human Rights Protection announced their findings at a Bishkek press conference on March 5, they said the results overall were valid.

The polls were watched most closely in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city. More than 400 people were killed there and in nearby Jalalabad in clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010.

Uluttar Birimdigi, a party that city mayor Myrzakmatov helped create last year, got 47 per cent of the vote, according to results released on March 6. The Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, SDPK, which backs President Almazbek Atambaev, came second with 24 per cent of the vote.

The result gives Uluttar Birimdigi 20 out of the 45 seats on the city council, and a major say in deciding who becomes mayor.

Seen as a Kyrgyz nationalist, Myrzakmatov has expanded his sphere of influence since 2010. His current term expires shortly, so he will be looking to shore up his support against the central administration in Bishkek, where he is viewed as a controversial figure who has defied attempts to control or remove him.

Ahead of the vote, he issued a statement accusing "over-zealous" SDPK representatives of making inappropriate use of state resources to help their campaign, a charge that party denied.

Kylym Shamy's head Aziza Abdirasulova said the fact that a several-thousand-strong rally in support of Myrzakmatov and Uluttar Birimdigi three days before the polls went off without incident was an achievement in itself, and helped set a positive mood for the election itself.

The rally was attended by Kamchibek Tashiev, leader of the Ata-Jurt party, and Adakhan Madumarov of the Butun Kyrgyzstan party, reflecting a new alliance among southern politicians.

Ata-Jurt was part of the governing bloc in Kyrgyzstan until Atambaev's election as president in October, when the SDPK used this new position of strength to break with it and find a new coalition partner, in the shape of the Respublika party whose leader Omurbek Babanov is now prime minister. Butun Kyrgyzstan has no seats in parliament.

Mars Sariev, a political analyst in Bishkek, can see advantages for both Ata-Jurt and Butun Kyrgyzstan in aligning themselves with the newer Uluttar Birimdigi. Both will be hoping to boost their own popularity through association with Myrzakmatov, who combines the formal function of mayor with the trappings of an informal power-broker.

"Myrzakmatov is a charismatic personality who enjoys widespread support in Osh and is very popular," Sariev said.

Such a the three-party alliance is likely to strengthen the traditional north-south divide in Kyrgyzstan's politics, Sariev said, adding that "it will provoke a reaction from the northern clans".

At the same time, Sariev sees little appetite for serious trouble at the moment.

"The majority of the population, both in the south and in the north, as well as considered politicians, understand that such a confrontation would not be not in the country's interests," he said.

In Karakol, in Issyk-Kul region, around 100 people brandishing sticks and stones tried to force their way into the mayor's office, according to the Kyrgyz interior ministry. They were demanding an annulment of the results for the municipal council election, claiming that many people had been left off the electoral roll.

Two policemen were injured, though the interior ministry said the situation was now under control.

With almost 88 per cent of ballots counted in Karakol on March 7, the SDPK came first with 21 per cent of the vote. Respublika was in second place with just over ten per cent, while a new political group called Soyuz ("Union") was third with slightly under ten per cent.

Several youth organisations issued a statement on March 5 demanding that results for the town be declared invalid, and accusing the authorities of using state resources like media, local government officials and election staff to campaign for pro-government parties. They included Kyrgyzstan Jastar Keneshi (Kyrgyzstan Youth Council), which received got just under five per cent of the vote, and issued a call for more protests.