BISHKEK: Parties close to Kyrgyzstan’s pro-Russian President Sooronbai Jeenbekov dominated a parliamentary election on Sunday, though the results were disputed by several opposition parties after widespread claims of vote-buying.

The 61-year-old head of state’s predecessor ended up in jail, so Jeenbekov will be happy to have secured a friendly parliament as he plans for life after his single permitted term ends in 2023.

Four parties crossed the threshold to get representation in parliament, three of which are expected to be loyal to the president, according to official results based on a count of 96 percent of the votes.

The Birimdik party of Jeenbekov’s younger brother Asylbek Jeenbekov and the Mekenim Kyrgyzstan party associated with the powerful Matraimov family — a presumed ally of the president — each got around a quarter of the vote.

A third pro-presidential party, the Kyrgyzstan Party, scored nine percent of the vote, while a nationalist party Butun Kyrgyzstan just edged past the seven percent threshold required for entry, according to Central Electoral Commission data.

Two parties in the outgoing parliament that positioned themselves in opposition to Jeenbekov, Bir Bol and Ata-Meken, fell well short of the threshold, a development that could spark protests after allegations of voter bribery mounted on Sunday.

Kyrgyzstan has seen two presidents overthrown in revolutions since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but has enjoyed relative stability since 2010.

Speaking after the vote, Ata-Meken’s nominal leader Janar Akayev said the party considered the vote illegitimate and would join other parties in opposing the results “with radical methods”.

His colleague Tilek Toktogaziyev called the trio of vote-topping parties a “three-headed dragon”.

While few Kyrgyz parties have identifiable ideologies and instead revolve around powerful personalities, both Birimdik and Mekenim Kyrgyzstan presented themselves as supporters of deeper integration with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union.

The Matraimov family’s figurehead Rayimbek Matraimov is a former customs service official who was the target of anti-corruption protests last year.

Videos purporting to show vote-buying schemes favouring the two victorious parties abounded on social media on Sunday, but there was no immediate sign that either would be punished.

Jeenbekov and his predecessor Almazbek Atambayev were allies but after they fell out Atambayev was arrested on corruption charges following clashes at the president’s former compound.

He was later charged over the murder of a former special forces officer in the clashes.

A party loyal to Atambayev competed on Sunday but won just two percent of the vote. The Social Democrats said in a statement that the party viewed the results with “great doubt” and said the vote had been characterised by “shameless, dirty vote-buying”. A third opposition party, Reforma, also said it considered the vote that saw a turnout of over 56 percent illegitimate.

Moscow’s dominant strategic position in Kyrgyzstan was not seen as being under threat regardless of the outcome of the vote.

Russia has a military base in the country and is a destination for hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz migrants.

Kyrgyzstan’s dependence on China, too, seems set to grow, with Jeenbekov recently asking Beijing to extend repayment periods for roughly $1.8 billion owned to China’s Exim bank — over 40 percent of the country’s total external debt — to offset the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2020