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600 candidates register for Kyrgyz election

BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan's election commission has registered a total of 600 candidates for the February 20 parliamentary elections.

"About 150 party candidates have been registered while 455 candidates will contest from single-member constituencies," commission head Sulaiman Imanbayev said late on Monday. "All in all there are about 600 people."

Ten political parties and two blocs had been registered for the election to the 105-seat parliament, he said.

Western analysts hope this year's parliamentary and presidential elections will be Central Asia's most democratic polls. Kyrgyzstan is considered the least autocratic nation in the region.

President Askar Akayev is expected to seek re-election in the December 2000 presidential poll.

Parliamentary polls in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan last year were criticised by the West as unfair and favouring those already in power.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe will send a full mission to monitor the election in the country of 4.5 million. Six long-term observers have already arrived while about 100 observers will be deployed on election day.

The Kyrgyz parliament has two chambers - the Council of People's Representatives house has 45 members while the Lawmaking Council upper house has 60 seats of which 15 will be contested on a party basis.

The main opposition parties contesting the election are the Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan, the Asaba National Renaissance Party and the Communist party. Several opposition parties were not registered by the Justice Ministry last year.

The Union of Democratic Forces is a bloc grouping most pro-president parties.-Reuters