BISHKEK (Thomson Financial) - An exit poll from Sunday's legislative election suggested that the party of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's newly-created Ak-Zhol party might be the only one in the new parliament.
Figures from the Binom Institue, suggested that none of the 11 other parties had crossed the 5 pct threshold needed to win seats in parliament, and gave Ak-Zhol 63 pct of the vote.
Opposition figures and election observers have described the institute as being close to the ruling party. In the run-up to the election and throughout the day's voting, opposition politicians have complained of widespread fraud.
Earlier Sunday, Bakiyev loyalist Adakahn Madumarov had suggested that Ak-Zhol might win all 90 seats in parliament.
And the president himself was in confident mood when he cast his ballot in the capital Bishkek.
'I am certain the new parliament will be better than the last one,' he told reporters. 'I congratulate all Kyrgyz on this great occasion ... It is an historic day.'
But Almaz Atambayev, head of the opposition Social-Democratic party, said the authorities had used dirty tricks against his party in the campaign and vowed protests if the vote was unfair.
'There is a lot of dirt and intrigue in these elections,' said Atambayev, a former prime minister sacked by Bakiyev.
During Sunday's voting, non-governmental organisations and political parties said they had registered dozens of violations, including multiple voting and various forms of bribes offered to voters.
At one voting station in Bishkek, police kept election observers four metres away from the tables where the votes were being counted, an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported.
And one observer who did not want to be named reported having been prevented by security forces from entering an electoral committee building in the western region of Talas.
'The political power is clearly trying to influence the result,' said the observer.
International observers have kept a close watch on the election, not least because the Central Asian state hosts both a US air base set up in 2001 to aid operations in Afghanistan, and a Russian air base set up in 2003.
Among them were 270 observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which will present a report on Monday.
Twelve political parties were competing for the 90 seats in the Zhogorku Kenesh, the former Soviet republic's legislature, in the first parliamentary elections since irregularities in 2005's vote sparked a revolution. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com hjp COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.