Watches Kyrgyz vote in landmark poll amid fears of violence

Kyrgyz vote in landmark poll amid fears of violence


Poll organisers are hoping the vote goes without a hitch
People in Kyrgyzstan are voting in a landmark parliamentary election, the first since 400 people died in inter-ethnic violence.

Twenty-nine parties fielding over 3,000 candidates are competing for 120 seats.

Six or seven parties are expected to dominate, although none is expected to easily win a majority of seats.

Authorities have vowed that the elections will take place without a renewal of the violence that hit the south of the country in June.

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Polling stations across the country opened at 0800 local time (0200 GMT) and will close at 2000 (1400 GMT).

The BBC's Rayhan Demetrie, in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, says the level of participation and the unpredictability of the outcome make the election significantly different from every other election that has ever taken place in Central Asia.

The vote is the first to be held under a new constitution adopted in a June referendum that changed the form of government from a presidential system to a parliamentary democracy.

The country's former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted following a popular uprising in April.
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We are see watches Sudan says it is committed to independence vote

Sudan says it is committed to independence vote


KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Sudan's foreign minister assured the U.N. Security Council Saturday that the government is committed to holding a referendum on southern independence on time - a vote that is widely expected to split the country in two.

Addressing Security Council members wrapping up a fact-finding trip to Sudan and Uganda, Ali Karti said the government's sole condition was no outside interference in the referendum.

"We are fully committed to holding the referendum on time," Karti told the visiting members of the Council, the U.N.'s most powerful arm. "We want it on time, but it must be arranged properly. ... We do not want any interference in the referendum, this is the only condition."

The referendum is required by a 2005 peace agreement that ended the 21-year civil war between Sudan's predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the largely Christian-animist south.

Preparations for the Jan. 9 vote have proceeded haltingly amid political and logistical obstacles, and the southerners have accused the northerners of stalling, warning of violence if the referendum is delayed.

Underlining the tensions surrounding the vote, clashes erupted between southern pro-secession demonstrators and pro-unity northerners staging a rally in Khartoum.

Some 70 southerners were arrested, and at least five people were wounded, according to the witnesses.

Police armed with sticks quickly dispersed the protesters, some of whom were toting posters reading, "No No Unity."

The vote on secession is open to all southerners whether they live in the north or the south, but determining who is eligible to vote and citizenship after the referendum have fueled tensions.

North Sudan officials are wary of losing the oil-rich south, while southerners say the Islamist-controlled government in Khartoum is not living up to its commitments of sharing wealth and respecting freedom of expression and religion.
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watch Kyrgyz vote in historic parliamentary election

Kyrgyz vote in historic parliamentary election


A Kyrgyz policeman provides security at a polling station in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010. Of the 29 parties in the running in Sunday's elections, at least half a dozen are expected to make it into a newly strengthened parliament, as an intensely fought and often ugly campaign draws to an end. (AP Photo/Nina Gorshkova)
By Peter Leonard
Associated Press Writer / October 10, 2010
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OSH, Kyrgyzstan—Polls opened in Kyrgyzstan for parliamentary elections Sunday to choose a new and empowered parliament that the government hopes will usher in a new era of democracy.


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The vote comes after an exhausting year of political turbulence and ethnic violence in the south.

Security has been tightened for the vote in the Central Asian nation in a bid to prevent any possible outbreaks of unrest.

Kyrgyzstan, which hosts a strategically vital U.S. air base near Afghanistan, is set to embrace a parliamentary system of governance. This marks a sharp departure from the strongman model exercised under President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in April amid violent public demonstrations.

Heading to cast his ballot a polling station at the agriculture institute in the southern city of Osh, 49-year old history teacher Ermek Suleimanov said the vote was a momentous turning point for the country.

"If in the past voting was just a formality, now we will find out who the people really want to lead them," Suleimanov said.

President Roza Otunbayeva said Saturday that the elections will be held in a spirit of fairness and transparency.

All eyes are on the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, where violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in June left more than 400 people dead, most of them Uzbeks, and displaced around 400,000 people.

Truckloads of police drove into Osh throughout the night, boosting the presence of security forces in the city.

In the ethnic Uzbek suburb of Sharq, a steady flow of voters headed to a local polling station Sunday morning on the site of a school burned down during the riots.
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party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa Japan DPJ Ozawa to bid for PM in party vote - media

Japan DPJ Ozawa to bid for PM in party vote - media
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa will run in a party leadership vote on Sept. 14 in a challenge to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Kyodo news agency and other Japanese media said on Thursday.

His candidacy risks a bitter battle within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) as it tries to deal with a soaring yen and a fragile economic recovery.

Japan's ruling Democratic Party former secretary general Ichiro Ozawa delivers a speech at a political seminar in Tokyo August 25, 2010. Japanese ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa will run in a party leadership vote on Sept. 14 in a challenge to Prime Minister Naoto Kan. (REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao)
The head of the DPJ will be the prime minister by virtue of the party's majority in the parliament's powerful lower house.

Veteran lawmaker Ozawa, who stepped down last year as party leader after a political funding scandal, has been an outspoken critic of Kan's decision to float the idea of a future sales tax hike ahead of a July upper house election, which the party lost.
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Australian vote set to end in hung parliament

Watch Australian vote set to end in hung parliament

Australia appears to be heading for its first hung parliament for 70 years, following yesterday's election, with neither the ruling Labor Party nor the opposition Liberal-National Coalition sure of securing a majority.

A minority government, supported by up to four independent MPs and one Green, seems the most likely scenario. However, it could take several days – possibly a fortnight – for postal and early votes to be counted, determining the outcome in the most closely fought seats. What was clear last night was that voters had turned on Labor, punishing it for its mistakes in government and for dumping its own leader, Kevin Rudd, in favour of Julia Gillard, the country's first female Prime Minister. A national swing against the party of more than 5 per cent benefited not only the conservative Coalition but the Greens; many voters were infuriated by the government's ditching of an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

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The Greens won Melbourne, their first seat in the House of Representatives, and are set to hold the balance of power in the Senate, or upper house. In other history-making events, Australia's first indigenous MP, Ken Wyatt, was elected in Western Australia, while the country's youngest politician, 20-year-old Wyatt Roy, triumphed in Longman, north of Brisbane. The Greens' MP, Adam Bandt, has indicated that he will give his support to Labor. However, he will be courted in days to come by both main parties, as will the independents.

In a speech to the party faithful in Melbourne, Welsh-born Ms Gillard made a point of congratulating Mr Bandt and the three independents whose seats are assured (a fourth remained in the balance last night). She said Labor had "a good track record of working positively and productively with independents in the lower house and with Greens in the Senate".

Tony Abbott, of the Coalition, who has barely slept in recent days such was his determination to capture every last vote, warned his supporters against "premature triumphalism". But he told the crowd gathered in a Sydney hotel: "What's clear tonight is that the Labor Party has definitely lost its majority, and what that means is that the government has lost its legitimacy."

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Australians vote in 'tight' poll

We are now saw this Australians vote in 'tight' poll

Australian are voting in a parliamentary election that will decide whether the country's first female prime minister will remain in power or be replaced by a conservative coalition. Julia Gillard, who became prime minister after her party pushed out her predecessor just two months ago, is facing a strong challenge on Saturday from Tony
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