The Role of International Election Observation in Kyrgyz Politics

Abstract

The role of international election monitoring missions is increasing in the international relations. As part of democratization theory it is mainly targeted to the transition countries which have little experience with democratic governance. In these states the fraudulent and illegal election conduct often takes place. Given this fact the current paper attempts to analyze the role of election observation in Kyrgyz politics during the 2007 parliamentary and 2011 presidential elections. Namely, the purpose of the paper is to find out the reason why international election observation missions are invited despite repeated fraud and why it is an important institution for ensuring legitimate elections. The study adds to the emerging literature the importance of the role of government in election observation as a crucial factor of increasing the effectiveness of this institution.