by Nick Coleman
BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan`s fledgling opposition suffered heavy losses in parliamentary polls according to first results of weekend run-off voting, prompting renewed unrest in the south of the former Soviet republic.
Following Sunday`s run-offs only six opposition figures were set to be in the 75-seat single-chamber parliament compared to some 20 in the last parliament, which was considered relatively independent by former Soviet Central Asia`s authoritarian standards.
"This wasn`t an election it was vote-buying -- we in the opposition don`t recognise the results," said Emil Aliyev, deputy leader of the Ar-Namys (Dignity) party.
"We will work with the population to encourage society to recognise the elections as invalid and to secure urgent presidential elections," Aliyev told AFP.
Sunday`s run-offs took place in 39 of this mountain republic`s 75 constituencies.
With two-thirds of constituencies having presented all their results, the election commission said turn-out was 59 percent.
Due to Kyrgyzstan`s barely developed party system, most candidates had not declared a party affiliation, meaning there is an increased chance of discontented members of parliament rebelling, analysts have said.
But President Askar Akayev`s daughter Bermet, a member of the Alga Kyrgyzstan (Forward Kyrgyzstan) party, won with 53.64 percent in a constituency in the capital Bishkek, following a first-round win by her brother Aidar.
The wins looked set to fuel criticism that parliament is being packed with loyalists ahead of presidential polls due in October at which Akayev, the country`s only leader since the Soviet Union`s 1991 collapse, has vowed to stand down.
Western observers have accused the authorities of arbitrarily disqualifying candidates, pressurising the media, bribing voters and allowing citizens of neighbouring countries to vote.
Such problems have sparked a wave of protest in recent weeks, though not in the capital Bishkek and not all coordinated by the opposition.
Among the few opposition figures making it into parliament were two with significant popular support, past presidential candidate Omurbek Tekebayev and Azimbek Beknazarov, whose controversial imprisonment in 2002 prompted major unrest in the south -- key opposition territory.
But the leader of the People`s Movement of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev failed to make it through, lagging some 20 percentage points behind a rival candidate at 38.61 percent.
In the rural Ton region, where delayed first-round voting took place on Sunday due to an earlier wave of protests, two-thirds of voters used their right to vote against all candidates, necessitating a re-run.
The results quickly sparked fresh unrest.
Some 3,000 protestors rallied in the southern regional centre of Jalal-Abad and other protestors occupied its governor`s office for a 10th day, a witness said.
Another 300 demonstrators from the mountainous Aksy region at the heart of the 2002 unrest gathered in the largest southern city of Osh, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
"We in Aksy don`t recognise Akayev as president," a middle-aged female protestor in the crowd shouted.
In the nearby town of Uzgen a poll monitoring organisation, the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, said that some 200 protestors had occupied the local mayor`s office and another 2,000 were demonstrating outside.
There has been disappointment among Western diplomats over the polls, relations between the Kyrgyz authorities and the US embassy deteriorating sharply following a major effort to promote fairer polls by the United States, which has air force units posted in both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
"We hope the commitment to democracy is still there and that Akayev will fulfill this commitment by standing down (at the end of his current term)," a Western diplomat told AFP.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was due to make a statement on the run-off polls later on Monday, having already strongly criticized the first round.

03/14/2005 11:54 GMT