Foreign experts on the role of external factor in the upcoming presidential election
Foreign experts on the role of external factor in the upcoming presidential election
The Institute for Public Policy (IPP) asked foreign experts the following questions: a) Will the foreign factor play a significant role in the upcoming presidential election; b) Will support from foreign media help any candidate; c) Will the Constitution be changed after the election toward the presidential regime, and what is the impact of foreign forces on this process.
External factor
Andrey Grozin, a famous Russian expert, the head of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan Department at the Institute for CIS countries, commented on the influence of external factors on the election results: «Both Russian and Central Asian analysts say that the role of external factors in the upcoming presidential election will be quite significant, if not to say determining. Politicians in Kyrgyzstan understand it, too. This is a reason for numerous visits to Moscow, Brussels and even Washington, or, at least, I heard that some politicians often attend the US Embassy in Bishkek.
Politicians do understand that external factors will play an important role and try to get support from everywhere. Well, they are not original in that. Your neighbors do similar things. They also try to pursue multi-vector policy. It is the essence of multi-vector policy in Central Asia. Simply, in the pre-election campaign, when personal and group interests play the most important role, this multi-vector character becomes a matter of survival, not some abstract foreign policy term.
Therefore, it is clear that so many parties are interested in the election results: not only candidates, but also groups, political parties, and regions that form large concentric circles around future presidential candidates. They all hope to build some configurations, and they all think about whom they should bank on, whom they should support, whom they should criticize, etc. So, the attempts to use this external factor seem quite natural. One should not blame politicians or political parties for «selling» national interests of the republic, for serving the interests of Moscow, Astana, Brussels or Washington. It is a natural part of the political process. Simply, in Kyrgyzstan, everything is more visible.