Many Migrant Workers Unable to Vote in Kyrgyz Polls

Kyrgyzstan’s election laws require people to vote where they are officially registered as resident. But tens of thousands of people are “internal migrants” living and working far from home, and therefore unable to take part in the October 10 parliamentary election. 

Many cannot afford the long and often difficult trip back to their homes just to be able to vote.

Neither the national election body nor the labour ministry possesses data that would show how many migrants are likely to have been excluded by rules that tie the electoral roll to the registration system known as “propiska”.

Some associations of migrants are campaigning for the electoral roll requirements to be changed, citing a constitutional referendum held in June in which people were able to vote wherever they happened to be living.

Others point out that the rules covering referenda belong to different legislation, and it would have been technically impossible to change the election law while campaigning was going on.

Election officials say that even under the current rules, anyone can seek to register as a voter in a temporary place of registration, as long as they do so 15 days before election day and furnish proof that proof of work and inability to go back

Dinara Oshurakhunova of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society believes the new parliament should look at ways of decoupling voter registration from the propiska system.

The second report in this radio package looked at the slow pace of reconstruction work in southern Kyrgyzstan following the June violence that left 400 dead and caused widespread damage and destruction to homes and businesses.

Residents of the city of Osh say the authorities have been slow to issue funding and materials so that they can get to work on their homes.

Kadymbay Baktygulov, deputy head of the state agency in charge of the reconstruction programme, said negotiating with each homeowner proved a protracted and frustrating experience.

Work is progressing faster on five multi storey apartment blocks which the government is paying for. The contractor doing the work says it is ten days ahead of schedule and has nearly finished one building despite only starting in August.

Osh’s deputy mayor Talay Sabirov said a list had been drawn up to prioritise the distribution of flats in the new blocks.

“The apartments are intended for people who suffered during events in June,” he said. Some have had parents injured. Others are unable to rebuild their homes - they hand over their land to the state and get apartments in return…and there are also vulnerable people.”
 

The audio programme, in Russian and Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in Kyrgyzstan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.