Ahead of the national elections this fall the National Institute for Strategic Studies (NISS) and the UNDP in Kyrgyzstan have launched a project whereby International IDEA’s Electoral Risk Management tool will be utilized to build the capacity of national stakeholders to organize peaceful and credible elections.
In June, International IDEA provided training for staff UNDP and the NISS, a government formed think-tank conducting research for the prime minister’s office.
NISS plans to use the ERMTool to identify vulnerable areas and, in particular focus effort on preventing outbreaks of election-related violence. This is the first time International IDEA have provided training for a user which is not an electoral management body (EMB).
Both organizations have also expressed an interest in using the ERMTool after the elections. For example, NISS notice potential to use it as an analytical tool for economic, social, demographic, migration and inter-ethnic processes.
The October election is the first real test for the new political system created after former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted during the 2010 revolution. But the elections will be held amid deep economic uncertainty and interethnic tensions, according to a Foreign Policy Magazine article.
