OSCE supports roundtable discussion on registration of citizens of special category in the voters’ list
The OSCE Centre in Bishkek and the Central Election Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic organized a roundtable on 7 July to discuss issues related to the inclusion of citizens who are in remand prisons, detention facilities, psychiatric hospitals, social institutions, and military service into the voters’ list for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The participants discussed how to organize voting procedures for this category of citizens to enable appropriate conditions so that they can exercise their constitutional right to vote. Government officials as well as civil society representatives took part in the debate.
The background for the roundtable is the ODIHR Election Observation Mission report of the last parliamentary elections in 2010 stating that during the last elections “procedures for voting in hospitals and detention centres were not elaborated at all”.
Katinka Patscher, Human Dimension Officer at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, noted that while the OSCE Centre in Bishkek is not connected to the international Election Observation Missions from ODIHR, it works on the basis of their recommendations and supports the authorities in implementing them.
“The OSCE Centre in Bishkek provides assistance during the whole electoral cycle covering the time before, during and after the elections,” she said adding that this year the Office will work on an electoral assistance project. The project will provide assistance to the Central Election Commission and the State Registry Service in preparing for the elections and to civil society in preparing for domestic election observation.
The roundtable is a part of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek project “Promoting free, fair and transparent Parliamentary elections in the Kyrgyz Republic” funded by the Governments of Finland, Germany, Norway and Switzerland.