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| - Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary election got underway Sunday with observers and smaller parties warning that vote buying could spoil a rare competitive election in former Soviet Central Asia. Surrounded by authoritarian states with rubber-stamp legislatures, elections in mountainous Kyrgyzstan offer a colourful and sometimes unpredictable contrast. President Sooronbai Jeenbekov will be hoping for a cooperative parliament as he plans for life after his term ends in 2023, knowing that his own predecessor and former protege Almazbek Atambayev is currently languishing in jail. With the coronavirus pandemic battering paltry incomes, many observers are warning that the stage is set for massive ballot fraud by well-resourced parties. Svetlana Lavrova, a resident of the capital Bishkek, told AFP that she watched citizens arrive by minibus at a polling station where they were greeted and handed pieces of paper. Observers have warned that what Lavrova called "bussing" could indicate a coordinated vote-buying effort on the part of well-resourced, pro-government parties. "Am I alone in voting according to my conscience?" 55-year-old Lavrova asked. An AFP correspondent saw several Mercedes minibuses parked outside a polling station in the Besh-Kungey village close to Bishkek, where dozens of soldiers were queing to vote. The correspondent said that civilian voters in the same queue appeared to be dressed differently from residents of the village, and that well-built men in tracksuits were observing the queue. The Central Election Commission said nearly 500,000 voters among the 3.5 million electorate changed their place of voter registration ahead of the polls. Monitors have warned the figure could be yet another indicator of coordinated vote buying campaigns. Polling stations across the country opened at 0200 GMT and will close at 1400 GMT, with the first results expected late on Sunday. Sixteen parties are competing for seats in the 120-member legislature. The Birimdik (Unity) party is viewed as loyal to Jeenbekov and includes the president's brother and former parliamentary speaker Asylbek Jeenbekov among its candidates. Its main rival, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan (My Homeland Kyrgyzstan), is associated with a powerful clan whose figurehead Rayimbek Matraimov -- a former customs service official -- was the target of anti-corruption protests last year. Both parties have spoken in favour of further integration with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union bloc, which has raised the status of hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz migrants working in Russia since Bishkek joined in 2015. But Birimdik's party chairman Marat Amankulov sparked indignation after comments emerged from last year of him saying it was "time to return" to Moscow's fold. Rivals accused him of undervaluing Kyrgyz independence. In a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Sochi ahead of the vote, Jeenbekov warned of "forces" that wanted to "drive a wedge into the (Kyrgyz-Russian) alliance" -- an apparent reference to a pro-sovereignty rally held in opposition to Amankulov's comments in the capital Bishkek last Sunday. On Friday, the state prosecutor said it was investigating a video widely distributed on messaging apps. The video, which purported to show two male students from a top university secretly filmed in a hotel room, appeared to imply that opposition parties were supportive of homosexuality, which is deeply frowned on in the conservative country. The opposition parties targeted in the video said this was an attempt to smear them ahead of the vote. Popular uprisings unseating two authoritarian presidents in the space of five years were seen as the driving force behind a fresh constitution to curb authoritarian excess and contain political in-fighting in 2010. Electoral laws dictate that no one party can take more than 65 seats in the legislature. Presidents are limited to a single six-year term -- a departure from the strongman trend seen in neighbouring China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Tensions between the president and his predecessor Atambayev grew following Jeenbekov's electoral victory in 2017, peaking last year with a shootout at Atambayev's residence between the former president's armed supporters and state security forces trying to arrest him. Atambayev was detained on charges of illegally releasing a crime boss from jail and jailed for 11 years in June. He has also been charged in the murder of a special forces officer who died during the raid. tol-cr/as/bmm
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