In Kyrgyzstan, after a failure in the electronic system of the CEC, the counting of votes is carried out manually. The commission explained the failure as “operator error”

Parliamentary elections were held in Kyrgyzstan on November 28, but a scandal erupted during the counting of votes. A strange glitch occurred on the CEC website, leading to accusations of falsification of the voting results. The authorities propose to trust the vote counting manually, and the failure on the CEC website was explained by an error of one of the operators.

“The CEC specialist mistakenly doubled the figure [механическая ошибка при написании формулы калькуляции] when publishing voting data on the website of the electoral system “, – it says in the message on the website of the CEC of Kyrgyzstan.

Subsequently, the Central Election Commission notes, the operator “corrected the formula in the data visualization” and after that the system began to work properly. “This mistake was the same not only for the parties that did not enter (to the parliament), but for all,” the CEC assured.

Earlier at a briefing, Secretary of the Security Council of Kyrgyzstan Marat Imankulov voiced a different version. According to him, the CEC website was hacked.

They stressed that “no one can get access to the automated information system for voting, even if he wants to.”

At the same time, the CEC is urged to treat with even greater confidence the started manual counting of votes, which “is carried out openly, publicly in the presence of observers from candidates, parties and public organizations.”

“We have nothing to hide. And we are talking to politicians who say that the CEC will change ballots at night: we have only 31,000 members of election commissions throughout the country. There are your representatives among them, – the CEC addressed the opposition. – And imagine that 31 thousand people run around with ballots and throw them up. This is absurd. Nowadays, every slightest action is instantly known. Let’s not doubt each other. Each vote belongs to the voters themselves 100 percent. We will ensure this in full ”.

By the morning of November 30, the CEC had received less than 20% of the protocols for manual counting of votes, transfers 24.kg.

On November 28, on the website of the Central Election Commission of Kyrgyzstan, during the processing of information received from polling stations from electronic ballot boxes, a failure occurred in the system. As a result, the page was unavailable for viewing for some time. After the resumption of work, deliberately false information appeared on it: in total, all parties gained more than 150% of the votes. In this regard, representatives of various political forces announced the falsification of the results and demanded a repeat vote.

CEC Chairperson Nurzhan Shildabekova explained the failure by the fact that the wrong program was allegedly uploaded to the site. And the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov promised to bring the CEC employees to justice if the suspicions of falsification are confirmed.

The opposition has no fewer questions about the manual counting of votes than about the electronic one. Observers report en masse that members of precinct commissions refuse to provide them with a certified copy of the manual counting protocol, writes “Cloop”. The members of the commissions explain their refusal by the fact that the protocols must first be taken to the District Election Commissions and checked for errors. They also refer to the fact that they do not have copying equipment and paper.

Elections to the parliament of Kyrgyzstan were held on November 28 according to a mixed system – 54 deputies were elected according to party lists, 36 – in single-mandate constituencies. 1.3 thousand people applied for 90 seats in the Kyrgyz parliament. According to preliminary data of the CEC, six parties enter the parliament, having overcome the five percent barrier – Ata-Zhurt Kyrgyzstan, (Motherland – Kyrgyzstan), Ishenim (Trust), Yntymak (Harmony), Yyman Nuru (Light of Faith), Alliance and Butun Kyrgyzstan (United Kyrgyzstan). The turnout was about 35%.

The previous parliamentary elections were held in the fall of 2020. Summing up their results led to massive protests and a change of power in the country. The new president is the former deputy Sadyr Japarov, who was released from prison by the protesters.

In October 2021, the President demanded from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Committee for National Security to strengthen control over the institutions of civil society, especially during elections. “We still have politicians who have made it a habit to involve citizens in politics on a national basis. Such situations intensify divisions and impede the unity of the people, ”Japarov said. He called for “not to allow dishonest elections and provocations”, which are fraught with “upheavals and revolutions.”