Police Break Up Protest As Kyrgyzstan Votes

Incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev, accused by critics of cracking down on dissent, is widely expected to win the vote.

Kyrgyz police fired in the air and used batons to break up an opposition rally on Thursday as the volatile Central Asian nation voted in a closely watched presidential election.

Incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev, accused by critics of cracking down on dissent, is widely expected to win the vote but the opposition has cried foul and criticised it as unfair.

A spokesman for Bakiyev's main opposition challenger, Almazbek Atambayev, said 1,000 people had gathered in the town of Balykchi to protest over the conduct of the election.

"They had gathered to express their discontent with this lawlessness," he said, adding that shots were fired in the air as riot police used force to disperse the crowd.

Omurbek Rakhmanov, a senior administration official in Balykchi, confirmed the incident but said the crowd was smaller than 1,000. He told Reuters by telephone no one was injured.

Kyrgyzstan, a nation of snow-capped mountains, tribal fierce rivalries and a crumbling economy, is home to U.S. and Russian bases and its stability is key to efforts to prevent the spread of violence from Afghanistan across the ex-Soviet region.

The opposition said it had documented cases of fraud and said it would hold rallies in Bishkek later in the day.

"We will not be defeated. They are capable of stealing our votes," Atambayev said. "We will wait until this evening and then people will decide what to do for themselves."

Basking in a hazy summer heat, Bishkek itself appeared calm as the election proceeded. A city where Soviet architecture is mixed with traditional mudbrick houses, Bishkek was the scene of violent protests in 2005 that toppled Bakiyev's predecessor.

Security was tight across Kyrgyzstan on election day, with 5,000 officers on high alert and extra measures enforced in the potentially restive border areas in the Ferghana Valley.

Poverty and shrinking living standards have added to voter disenchantment. "I voted against Bakiyev," said Nina, a pensioner who asked to be identified by first name only. "Nothing will change. This country has no future under him."

Atambayev's party said its observers had uncovered irregularities such as absentee ballot fraud. The central election commission said it had not documented any serious violations, according to local media.

In Russia, home to up to a million Kyrgyz citizens, hundreds of voters queued up in a polling station in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.Detained migrants, who were caught working illegally, were given special permission to have their say and led by police to vote in a hall decked with Kyrgyz flags.

ISLAMIST MILITANTS

Kyrgyzstan and the rest of Central Asia, largely peaceful since 2005, have been volatile in past weeks as fighting intensified in the adjacent areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some security analysts believe the surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's offensive against militants, may have forced Taliban fighters of Central Asian origin to trickle back into the former Soviet region.

Some critics however have accused Bakiyev and other regional leaders of using the Islamist threat to bolster re-election chances and win concessions from the United States and Russia.

Bakiyev's unpredictable foreign policy has puzzled his partners. He said in February he would evict U.S. forces from Manas military base but later changed his mind and allowed the United States to keep the base. He is now in talks with Russia to open a military training hub in Kyrgyzstan.

Speaking after casting his ballot, Bakiyev promised to maintain balance in his relations with Russia and the United States if re-elected.

"We will cooperate with all parties and build relations based on mutual respect, trust and benefit," he told reporters, describing relations with Russia as strategic. "This does not mean we will not cooperate with Europe and the United States."