AKIPRESS.COM - The Government of Switzerland continues supporting the efforts of the Kyrgyz authorities in the framework of the project “Strengthening Democratic Practices in the Election Processes in the Kyrgyz Republic”.

Ambassador of Switzerland to the Kyrgyz Republic René Holenstein and UNDP Resident Representative in the Kyrgyz Republic Alexander Avanessov today signed an addendum to the agreement on the Kyrgyz Elections Support Project implemented by UNDP in the presence of the Chairman of the State Registry Service of the Kyrgyz Republic Tairbek Sarpashev. The additional grant is CHF 200,000 (more than 14 million soms).

According to the agreement Switzerland allocates additional funding for further modification of the biometric identification system of the State Registry Service to ensure accuracy and transparency of voting results. With this additional funding, Switzerland has allocated CHF 2.6 million in total for supporting elections processes in the period of 2015-2017. The overall goal of the entire project is to contribute to the efforts of the Kyrgyz authorities to strengthen democratic practices in the election process.

The parliamentarian elections in 2015 were successfully conducted with the use of the New Voting Technologies. In general terms, the elections were acknowledged as fair and open. Switzerland contributed by supporting the training of 9’000 operators of new voting technologies, supply of more than 200 automated ballot boxes, and by supporting voter education, domestic observation as well as dispute resolution system.

“Every election is an important milestone in the development of a country, region and community. Voters or citizens place sincere hopes that their vote counts and changes for good will take place”, said the Ambassador of Switzerland to the Kyrgyz Republic, René Holenstein. “The request to further support the election process was voiced out during the official visit of parliamentarians of Jogorku Kenesh to Switzerland in June 2016, headed by the speaker Chynybai Tursunbekov. By strengthening the election processes in Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland would like to contribute that hopes of people will materialize and come true”.