Obligatory Elections Post

This Sunday, the Kyrgyz interim government holds its parliamentary elections. Between accounts from excitable western media and the cynical remarks from my local colleagues, I couldn't predict if these will be the start of more turmoil or the start of anything at all, but even the most passive (and language-impaired) observer can see evidence of the political scrambling going on among the (thirty or so?) parties, new and old.

Not long ago, I was eating yogurt for breakfast and found this on top:



So began my collection of political fliers and billboards. Most of the ones you'll find on my flickr account are from a 20 minute walk down my street. One of the things I personally find interesting is how many campaigns spend a lot of extra money making monolingual billboards (eg, CDPK's "Give him/you/us a voice" billboards in either Russian or Kyrgyz) and how many (with varying levels of info design success) go bilingual.

And now a flurry of excuses:
I have a bunch more photos, but I haven't been able to force myself to bite the bullet and get a pay flickr account. Lower rez would be an option, but I'm afraid legibility may become an issue. Even trimmed down, I missed so many because of Bishkek's terrifying traffic and too many darn trees. Also, there are a few doubles and sideways shots, but due to the slow internet and my full time job, I may not finish cleaning the set up in time for elections, sorry.

That said,


Do these two not remind you of a certain US election from 2008?

Hmm, just sayin'.