In the first round of Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections held on February 20, opposition candidate Daniyar Usenov received 12,402 votes in his Bishkek constituency. Usenov, very popular among the Kyrgyzstan population, planned to run for president against the current leader Askar Akayev. However, these plans were derailed when on March 2, 2000, the Kyrgyzstan Territorial Electoral Committee received a report from opposing candidate Isa Tokoyev that Daniyar Usenov had failed to report several items in his pre-election property and tax declarations. These included a house in Kara-Balta that cost nearly 180 thousand soms ($4000), an apartment, land holding and stock securities worth 856 soms. The regional electoral committee held an urgent meeting and decided to bar Usenov from running as a candidate. The next day his complaint against the committee’s decision was lodged with the Central Electoral Committee which ruled against Usenov by upholding the decision of the previous day.

How could Usenov’s opponent get information about his property and tax declarations? This information is supposed to be confidential. In fact, only three people had access to this information: Usenov himself, the tax officer and the chairman of the Territorial Electoral Committee. Leaking this information was the first official violation of Kyrgyzstan’s constitutional law. In order to appeal the decision of the electoral committees, Usenov sued both Central Electoral Commission and the Territorial Electoral Commission. During the process it turned out the house in question was bought by Usenov’s wife in 1993 and sold in 1994. Usenov does not consider this house to be his property and does not pay any taxes on it. The new owner, who was also a candidate in the election, does pay taxes on the property. The homes and apartments of the other candidates were not evaluated, only Usenov’s.

When Usenov made his final speech in the courtroom of the Regional Court on March 9, he asked people to stay calm, to participate in the upcoming elections, and to continue to use democratic means to change their government. At 2:00 AM on March 10 the court upheld the decision to remove Usenov from the ballot. Isa Tokoyev became the sole candidate running in Daniyar Usenov’s Bishkek constituency for the upper house of the Kyrgyz parliament. An uproar went out through the courtroom. People seemed to loose their faith in Kyrgyzstan’s democracy and justice system. Daniyar Usenov stood firm and remained composed. He continued to call for peaceful means to come to a consensus.

As soon as the court’s final decision was announced, thousands of protestors began picketing in front of President Akaev’s residence, the White House, and petition signatures were collected to prove that people wanted Usenov to be their representative and not Isa Tokoyev who received less than 8% of the votes. The voters declared that they did not know and neither cared about the incomes of deputies, they just wanted to be represented by the candidate they trusted most, the one who can bring their country to democratic rule and end corruption. This candidate they believed to be Daniyar Usenov. Mainly because of the miscarriage of justice involving Usenov, the OSCE announced that the Kyrgyzstan elections "failed to comply with OSCE standards".

Alexandra Shpakova, International Relations Department undergraduate, American Univeristy--Kyrgyzstan