Kyrgyzstan - the trouble with elections

The first round of elections to Kyrgyzstan's Parliament has not met international standards says the OSCE, but half the results have had to go to a second round. If that's election fixing, it's certainly taking an awful lot of effort for not much fixing. There is a view that outsiders are being too harsh in their judgment for political reasons and that, compared to the past state of affairs, the fact that the elections were peaceful and not all the favoured government candidates got in is a huge step forward, especially when the opposition parties are so fragmented and uncoordinated in their campaigns more from the Times of Central Asia... Another interesting prediction is that the President has made such an effort to get his family and close cronies elected that he's forced many of the ruling political class to consider going over to the opposition, so look for a closer contest in the Presidential elections this year more from EurAsianet...