Election observers discovered an attempt to rig the vote in a polling station in favor of President Askar Akayev, in presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan Sunday.
Akayev is in any case expected to be returned to power in a vote that even even state officials have admitted has been marred by violations.
Turnout was strong, with almost 50 percent of the tiny Central Asian state's 2.4 million voters having voted shortly after 2:00 pm (1100 GMT), the central election commission said.
Polling booths across the impoverished former Soviet republic of almost five million people opened at 7:00 am (0200 GMT) and were expected to close 13 hours later.
Violations were reported almost immediately Sunday, when observers discovered that 700 votes in Akayev's favor had been stuffed into a Bishkek ballot box even before the polling stations had opened.
A member of a US political watchdog, the National Democratic Institute, said those ballots represented some 40 percent of the electorate for that particular polling station.
Kyrgyz central election commission chairman Suleyman Imanbayev branded the finds a "clear provocation" and said the local election committee representative had already been fired.
The vote is being seen as a test of Kyrgyzstan's democratic credentials after a March parliamentary poll savaged by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
But controversy already surrounds the vote, in which Akayev is widely expected to win.
Opposition candidates have complained that their election meetings have been disrupted and that they have been denied access to state radio and television.
Casting his ballot Sunday, Akayev said he was unable to comment on the reported violations, saying it was a matter for election committee officials.
With a confident smile on his face, Akayev said he was unable to answer any further questions because this would be viewed as electioneering.
"I have voted for democracy," he said, adding that democracy had already taken "deep root" throughout the state.
A soft-spoken leader, Akayev said that the two key tasks awaiting the republic's new leadership would be ridding the state of endemic corruption and boosting economic growth.
"We need to root out corruption in all its forms," he added.
But many voters accuse the 55-year-old president and his circle of having thrived on corruption and cronyism, at a time when an estimated 60 percent of the population lives on the edge of poverty.
This discontent not expected to topple Akayev however, who stands against five relative unknowns in the presidential vote.
His main challenger, former national security minister Feliks Kulov, was barred from the race after refusing to sit a controversial Kyrgyz language exam viewed by the opposition as a means of weeding out serious rivals.
Kulov, who decided to back deputy Omurvek Tekebayev, said the elections were "unequalled in the number of violations" that had taken place -- BISHKEK (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
