PRESS RELEASE

 Bishkek October 15th 2017

 For distribution in the media

Public association “Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society” announces preliminary findings of monitoring the voting day on October 15, 2017, as well as voting outside the premises/mobile voting.

Mobile voting/voting outside the premises took place on October 14th, in 72% of PECs. In general, during mobile voting and the opening of polling stations, there were no serious violations, and our observers had access to monitoring the entire process of mobile voting.

Coalition observers noted that on the day of mobile voting, in accordance with the procedures, empty ballot boxes were demonstrated and sealed at all PECs, checklists were signed and dropped into the boxes in accordance with the procedures also by 100% of PECs.

During the mobile voting, for 12% of PECs were there was voting outside the premises, there were isolated cases when voters could not vote because of the failure of voter identification equipment.

«In general, we can say that during the process of mobile voting, the secrecy of voting was observed at all polling stations. Other procedures, such as registering voters in the voters list, entering the mark “voted outside the premises,” sealing the boxes after the vote, drawing up acts on voting outside the premises were also observed at all sites. Complaints by the participants in the electoral process were not received during the mobile voting.» said Azamat Adilov, the president of the Coalition.

On the voting day of October 15, 1,000 Coalition observers monitor the voting process at 500 polling stations throughout the country selected by random sampling, representative of the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. During the day, each observer will send reports in the form of SMS messages to the Coalition’s call center on the progress of voting, recorded violations at polling stations from the moment of opening of the polling stations and until the end of vote counting.

At 8.00. In the morning, preliminary data was obtained on opening procedures from all 500 PECs from a random sample representative of the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. All Coalition observers had access to monitoring the opening of polling stations.

In general, it can be noted that the opening of polling stations was held in accordance with the law. On a small number of sites, some opening procedures were not followed.

At 77% of PECs in the Kyrgyz Republic, the meetings of precinct election commissions began on time. At 22% of PECs, the meeting began earlier than 07.00 o’clock in the morning, and at 1% of the PEC, the meeting began after 07.30 in the morning. This indicates that a mandatory meeting of precinct election commissions was held at all polling stations. Empty ballot boxes were demonstrated to all those present at all sites, but lin ess than 1% of the PECs, the boxes were not sealed, the control sheet was not omitted, nor was the zero check of the ABS (Automated Ballot Boxes) demonstrated. About 1% of PECs did not draw lots and compulsory recount of ballots received by PECs from TECs. Nevertheless, the Coalition observers did not record any serious violations that could affect the results of the vote.

According to observers however, which provided reports from 7 to 10 am, 14 violations were recorded throughout the country, 4 of them in Bishkek, 2 in Osh oblast, 1 in Naryn oblast, 2 in Batken oblast, 1 in Talas oblast, 3 in Chui oblast and 1 in Issyk Kul oblast. These violations are related to the opening of polling stations, such as: no presentation of the total number of received ballots from the TEC, no presentation for visual inspection, and no recount of ballots.

A live coverage of the work of the call center “Coalition”, where all the information from short-term observers from all regions of Kyrgyzstan is recorded about the monitoring of voting at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXRiM3q6tApvITfWc9Bd-A

Briefly on the observation methodology:

The PVT (Parallel Vote Tabulation) methodology is the most effective method of systematic data collection for monitoring elections, which allows civil society to assess the quality of processes on the Election Day and to determine the accuracy of the official voting results announced by the election commission. PVT is a method aimed at exercising control by civil society for the state’s compliance with its obligations to conduct fair and democratic elections.

The basis of PVT is the observation of polling stations selected by random sampling, representative of the entire territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. The way of carrying out the PVT is based on statistical principles, which allow you to extrapolate the information received from selected polling stations to the whole country.

PVT allows for an evaluation of all voting day processes systematically and impartially: opening polling stations, voting, closing polling stations and counting of votes. At the same time, the collection and analysis of voter turnout and election results without comprehensive monitoring of all electoral processes would not provide accurate data, since information can be based on incorrect or inadequately collected information.

The goal of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society is to contribute to the process of transparency and fairness of elections through the organization of qualitative, objective and independent monitoring of the pre-election process, the voting day and summing up the results.

This goal is accomplished through observation of the pre-election process, voting day and post-election process, informing the voter about his rights and duties, polls and interaction with all participants in the electoral process.

Public Association “Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society” is an independent, neutral, non-profit and non-governmental organization.

The mission of the Coalition is to build a civil society, strengthen the rule of law and protect human rights in the Kyrgyz Republic.