According to an article posted at Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, democracy activist Edil Baisalov has fled to Kazakhstan after being attacked by unknown assailants. Rumor has it that he has been seeking asylum in neighboring countries, but according to the article, he denies this claim.
Baisalov, called “a respected human rights defender and champion of the rule of law” in 2006 by Holly Cartner, director of the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch, had earlier been banned from participating in the Dec. 16 election after posting a picture of a voting ballot on his Web site. He said he posted the photograph to highlight flaws in the ballot, including the fact that it was printed on normal paper without a watermark.
Election officials, who said anyone with access to the photograph could create copies of the ballot, charged Baisalov’s Social Democratic Party about $570,000 to print new ballots. What I want to know is — were the new ballots any more difficult to replicate? And how did he get ahold of a ballot in the first place?
President Kurmanbek Bakiev and prime minister Feliks Kulov both earlier supported Baisalov but have since changed their tune after he turned his criticism on them.
Gazeta.kg claims to have found the photograph of the ballot and posted it on its Web site. And if you can read Russian, you can see what is supposedly Baisalov’s blog on Livejournal.com.
Tags: ballots, Edil Baisalov, Kyrgyzstan
