TWO Central Asian nations were in political limbo yesterday after flawed parliamentary elections fuelled opposition calls for Ukrainian-style revolution on the borders of China.

Western observers denounced Sunday’s polls in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, although monitors from former Soviet states said that they were fair.

Both nations are strategically important: Kyrgyzstan hosts a US and a Russian air base, and Tajikistan’s porous border with Afghanistan — a heroin smuggling route — is patrolled by Russian troops.

In Kyrgyzstan, preliminary results gave opposition members only three seats, most having gone to supporters of President Akayev. He has promised to step down at a presidential election in October but critics say he is trying to fill parliament with relatives and allies to prolong his rule. Among those who won a seat was his son Aidar.

Opposition supporters have begun protests to disrupt the second round of voting — to be held on March 13 in more than half of the constituencies. Many are calling for a “tulip” or “lemon” revolution comparable to Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003. Kimmo Kiljunen, head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observer mission, said that the Kyrgyz election “was undermined throughout the country” by vote-buying, state media bias and disqualification of opposition candidates.

The US Embassy in Bishkek yesterday backed the OSCE, which also criticised President Akayev for claiming that Ukrainian-style protests could spark a civil war. Askar Aitmatov, the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister, said: “The assessment and conclusions by the OSCE mission were not balanced.”

There was no comment from Moscow, which faces another foreign policy crisis on Sunday when Moldova goes to the polls in a parliamentary election in which all parties are calling for integration with the West and possible withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States, which groups former Soviet republics.

In Tajikistan the party supporting President Rakhmonov won 80 per cent of Sunday’s vote. Peter Eicher, the head of the OSCE mission there, said that the turnout of 88 per cent had been suspiciously high and the result had been influenced by abuse of government resources and state media bias.

A coalition of opposition parties is threatening to boycott the Government and parliament unless new elections are held, but is thought to be too weak to overturn the results.

• Uzbekistan has cancelled this week’s visit by the Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell because he insisted on discussing its human rights record.

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