BISHKEK - Over 80 foreign groups applied for permission to monitor Kyrgyzstan's July 10 presidential poll, the Central Asian state's electoral commission said, adding that all but one would receive accreditation.
A total of 810 observers and 187 foreign reporters have applied so far to monitor the poll, chairman Tuiguunali Abdraimov said Wednesday, adding that the Election Monitoring Organisation in the CIS (a loose post-Soviet grouping of 12 former Soviet republics) would be denied the chance.
"It has not yet even begun monitoring and already is blackmailing the commission, accusing it of drawing out the accreditation process. We so far have denied no group that wished to take part in monitoring, but CIS-EMO will be denied," Abdraimov told reporters.
The CIS-EMO, which intended to send seven observers to the poll, voiced concern after its application, dispatched on June 21, was delayed, and suggested that it was due "to our principles and consistency that may provoke fears from those political forces that wish to repeat the lawlessness we encountered in March."
The March parliamentary elections, which had been viewed as rigged, sparked popular uprisings and led to the ouster of veteran president Askar Akayev.
The former Soviet republic has been rocked by unrest since March, including clashes on June 17 between police and several thousand supporters of a candidate disqualified from the presidential race, Urmatbek Baryktabasov.
06/30/2005 01:42 GMT