Buttons for Butun Kyrgyzstan
Whilst the Spektator has been reserving most of its limited sympathy for Omurbek Tekebayev, the fallen angel in the 2010 parliamentary election race, spare a thought for Butun Kyrgyzstan, who came agonizingly close to entry into the Jogorku Kenesh parliament and are now taking their grievances onto the street.
By one interpretation, which doesn’t include additional voter lists, Buton should have passed into the parliament having received more than the 5% threshold. When the additional voter lists (always controversial in Kyrgyz elections) were included they had just over 4.8% of the vote: close but no cigar.
For those interested in what Butun would have stood for if given the chance, a garbled translation of their manifesto pledge can be found here.
Butun were seen by many as “Ata Jurt plus”, the only party bar the victors with a predominantly southern base, and thought of as being even more nationalistic than their more celebritous rivals. The lack of other regional options in Kyrgyzstan’s most densely populated oblasts – Osh and Jalal-abad – was one of the major reasons for the Jurt’s victory. In the North, parties with similar constituencies stole votes off one another and diluted their respective chances of overall victory, and, in the case of Ak-Shumkar (White Falcon), entry into the parliament.
Photo: Ulugbek Akishev for Kloop.kg
To check out the latest issue of the Spektator, visit www.thespektator.co.uk. If you have an issue you feel strongly about or would like to write about please email: editor@thespektator.co.uk
