By Robin Paxton and Olga Dzyubenko
BISHKEK |Sun Oct 30, 2011 3:21pm GMT
BISHKEK(Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan voted Sunday to elect a new president who willdetermine whether bold reforms to create Central Asia's firstparliamentary democracy will succeed in the divided and restive formerSoviet republic.
A clean election would signalthe first peaceful handover of the presidency in the mainly Muslimcountry after 20 years of failed authoritarian rule, the culmination ofreforms set in motion after a bloody revolt toppled the president lastyear.
But less than an hour beforepolls closed, six of the 16 candidates said they would reject theoutcome. Some said they had witnessed multiple voting, while others saidpoorly prepared voter lists had excluded many people from the ballot.
"Tensof thousands of voters couldn't vote in line with their constitutionalrights. They are outraged," said Adakhan Madumarov, one of two seriouschallengers to the Moscow-backed Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev.
Instabilityin Kyrgyzstan worries the United States and Russia, which operatemilitary air bases in the country of 5.5 million people and shareconcerns over drug trafficking and the possible spillover of Islamistmilitancy from Afghanistan.
"Wewant an honest president who can uphold the law, somebody who will notallow the country to be divided by clans or by north and south," said43-year-old schoolteacher Aida, who declined to give her second name.
Thosewho took power after an April 2010 revolution, led by outgoingPresident Roza Otunbayeva, have watered down the powers of the presidentand established parliament as the main decision-making body inKyrgyzstan.
Atambayev, thepro-business prime minister, is the flag-bearer of these reforms. Hispolicies are closest to those of Otunbayeva, who will step down at theend of 2011.
"A parliamentarysystem is more suited to the nomadic spirit of the people," Atambayevtold reporters after casting his vote. "After 20 years, we are convincedthat we don't need absolute power, which can transform itself intodictatorship."
Opinion polls have made Atambayev, 55, the clear favourite.
"He'sa grafter," said retired construction worker Nikolai Dubovik, 77, whobraved the first snow of winter to vote early at a school in the capitalBishkek.
But analysts questionwhether he can secure the outright majority required at the firstattempt. If he falls short, he will face a strong challenger from thesouth in a run-off.
Per capita GDPin Kyrgyzstan, at below $1,000, is less than a tenth of that in itsoil-rich neighbour Kazakhstan. The economy relies heavily on remittancesfrom migrant workers and the production of a single gold mine.
Stampingout graft will also be a major challenge to the next leader of acountry that ranked level with the Democratic Republic of Congo inTransparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index.
"Thecurrent authorities have done a lot, but not everything they promised,"said 53-year-old architect Kubanbaike Aliaskarov. "The price ofgasoline is hitting us in the pocket. Sugar has nearly doubled inprice."
NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE
The election threatens to expose a north-south cultural divide. Atambayev, from the more Russian-leaningand industrial north, faces challenges from Madumarov and a secondcandidate who can draw on the nationalism of voters in the poorer south.
Madumarov,a 46-year-old former national billiards champion, wants to reverse theconstitutional reforms to give equal prominence to the presidency andparliament.
The other leadingsouthern candidate, trained boxer and former emergencies ministerKamchibek Tashiyev, has said "millions" would take to the streets tooverthrow the country's leaders if they believed the elections to beunfair.
"We had a unique chance tohold honest, transparent and secure elections," said another candidate,Marat Imankulov. "Unfortunately we haven't seen this. The authoritieshave thus given a reason for people to express their dissatisfaction."
Arepresentative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation inEurope's election monitoring arm said earlier that only minor electoralviolations had been witnessed in what he called a "competitive race."
"(Thereis) the possibility for candidates without impediments to bring theirviews to the voters," said Douglas Wake, first deputy director of theOSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
Buthe added there had been "some challenges with voter lists, with thetransparency of the work of the electoral administration."
'KYRGYZSTAN IS DIFFERENT'
Inthe village of Gulbakhor, home to 3,000 ethnic Kyrgyz in the snowcappedmountains around the main southern city of Osh, residents votedoverwhelmingly for Madumarov, who has vowed to spend half his timeoutside the office if elected president.
"He's young and honest, and his pockets are empty. He does not pursue selfish goals," said pensioner Kamchy Aliyev, 82.
Butethnic Uzbeks in the south were voting for Atambayev. Many believe hisclose ties with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will protect themfrom a repeat of the June 2010 ethnic violence in which hundreds werekilled.
The next president will beallowed by the current constitution to serve a single 6-year term andwill appoint the defence minister and national security head.
Thefield of 16 candidates and the unpredictability of the result markKyrgyzstan out in formerly Soviet Central Asia, a region otherwisegoverned by authoritarian presidents.
"Inthe context of the region, Kyrgyzstan is different," Walburga HabsburgDouglas, head of the OSCE observation mission, told Reuters. "The peoplehave a genuine choice of candidates, who are presenting differentprograms."
The hopes of many voters were simpler.
"MayGod help our children not to kill and steal from each other," said62-year-old pensioner Jamillya Karashova. "We want peace on our soil.And maybe just a little happiness."
(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Osh; Writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by Rosalind Russell)