Kyrgyzstan votes in landmark election

FE Team | Published: October 11, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

ISHKEK, Oct 10 (Reuters): Kyrgyzstan votes Sunday to create the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, in an election its interim leaders hope can unite the country only four months after the worst bloodshed in its modern history.
Unique among elections in ex-Soviet Central Asia, voters have no idea which party will win the majority of seats in a new parliament and select a prime minister who will attempt to knit together a country plagued by political and ethnic divisions.
"We are electing not only a parliament, but a new system of government," President Roza Otunbayeva said in a televised address on the eve of the election. "We are turning over a new page in the history of Kyrgyzstan."
Interim leaders want the vote to empower a prime minister to restore stability in the former Soviet republic, where clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the south killed more than 400 people in June and left thousands homeless.
The United States, which operates a military air base in the country to support the war in Afghanistan, has vocally embraced the plan to create the first democracy in a region otherwise ruled by presidential strongmen with an iron grip on power.
Russia, which also has an air base in Kyrgyzstan, is an opponent of the parliamentary model, arguing it could expose the country to more violence or a power grab by Islamist militants as rival factions vie for influence.
In the southern region of Osh, epicenter of the June violence, the provincial governor said that voters could try to foment violence should their favored candidates fail to win seats in the new parliament.
Parts of the city are still in ruins, with many ethnic Uzbeks living in makeshift tents as they attempt to rebuild houses burned to the ground in the clashes. While some Uzbeks say they will reject the poll, many others say they will vote.
"Some, of course, are afraid, but they still believe in stability," said Zukhra Urushbayeva, head of the election commission in Shark, a predominantly Uzbek village in Osh region.
Otunbayeva, who came to power after a popular revolt toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, has said about 800 election observers will monitor the vote nationwide. She said she believed the vote would be free from corruption and fraud.