Kyrgyzstan's June 27 referendum ratifying a new constitution, despite some problems, reflected the will of Kyrgyzstan's voters, according to the findings of the country's leading domestic election monitoring organization, the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society.

With the vote, the nation became the first in Central Asia to opt for a system that significantly limits presidential power in relation to parliament. Voters also approved Roza Otunbayeva as interim president for a term through December 2011. They will choose a new parliament in October.

The referendum followed violent protests in April that led to the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiev and to a period of transition under an interim government established by former opposition party leaders led by Otunbayeva. The interim government has taken several steps to allow pluralist political activity and to initiate democratic reforms.

The coalition, with assistance from NDI, conducted both long- and short-term referendum monitoring efforts, which were the most comprehensive by any group in the country. The coalition's findings, released in a statement, became even more important when the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe decided to cancel its planned short-term observation nine days before the referendum.

For its long-term monitoring, the coalition fielded 35 independent observers in all regions of the country to observe voting preparations, formation of election commissions and voter education efforts. In a pre-referendum statement released June 25 (summarized here in English), the coalition detailed several steps taken by the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the interim government to improve voting procedures and protect against fraud, such as the reintroduction of finger-inking to prevent multiple voting. The group also commended the legal adjustments made for referendum day to account for voters displaced as a result of ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan earlier in June. However, the report noted that "the interim government's changes to the referendum voting process were not published with enough advance notice and widely enough to sufficiently inform citizens, which caused confusion about the main points of the changes introduced."

The coalition observed some violations among electoral commissions during the pre-referendum period, but "does not consider them systemic or widespread," it said. The coalition noted that the CEC "generally operated in an open and transparent manner and respected key deadlines."

The coalition fielded 1,000 short-term observers to monitor the polls on the day of the referendum. Observers were present at all stages of voting in 500 polling stations—nearly a quarter of the total. The coalition noted in its preliminary statement, released June 28 in English and Russian, that despite the short timeframe in which the referendum was conducted and the substantial challenges posed by the mid-June unrest, voter turnout was unprecedentedly high.

The coalition concluded that, "while some problems and electoral violations were noted, they could not have affected the overall result of the referendum. Generally...the referendum results reflect the will of Kyrgyzstan's voters."

The main problems observed by the coalition were incidents in which voters who claimed to be at the correct polling station could not find their names on the main voters' lists and had to be added to additional lists, and violations of indelible finger-inking procedures, including some cases where voters who were already inked were allowed to vote again.

Published July 1, 2010