Five Kyrgyz parties pass election threshold
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
BISHKEK, Oct 11 (Reuters): Five parties passed the threshold Monday to win seats in Kyrgyzstan's new parliament after an election aimed at shifting the strategic Central Asian nation away from failed authoritarian rule.
Kyrgyzstan is trying to form the first parliamentary democracy in a region dominated by post-Soviet strongmen, only four months after more than 400 people were killed in the country's worst bloodshed in modern history.
Ata Zhurt, whose members include former colleagues of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, held a narrow lead with 93 per cent of votes counted, the Central Election Commission said.
Sunday's election passed without violence and only minor reports of fraud. More than half of the electorate voted.
"We have not known such elections for the last two decades," President Roza Otunbayeva said in a televised address. "We can be proud of the fact that these elections were completely different to those we have seen before."
The parliament will be the country's main decision-making body, assuming more power than the president. Otunbayeva says she will remain as president until December 31, 2011.
Coalition-building will be needed to forge a majority with the right to select a prime minister, politicians say.
"This is the first time that the Kyrgyz people have tasted democracy," said Chynybai Tursunbekov, candidate for the Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, second in the polls.
Otunbayeva came to power after a popular revolt in April toppled Bakiyev, a former opposition leader who had taken over after his Soviet-era predecessor was chased from office by street protesters in 2005. Bakiyev is now exiled in Belarus.
Kyrgyzstan is trying to form the first parliamentary democracy in a region dominated by post-Soviet strongmen, only four months after more than 400 people were killed in the country's worst bloodshed in modern history.
Ata Zhurt, whose members include former colleagues of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, held a narrow lead with 93 per cent of votes counted, the Central Election Commission said.
Sunday's election passed without violence and only minor reports of fraud. More than half of the electorate voted.
"We have not known such elections for the last two decades," President Roza Otunbayeva said in a televised address. "We can be proud of the fact that these elections were completely different to those we have seen before."
The parliament will be the country's main decision-making body, assuming more power than the president. Otunbayeva says she will remain as president until December 31, 2011.
Coalition-building will be needed to forge a majority with the right to select a prime minister, politicians say.
"This is the first time that the Kyrgyz people have tasted democracy," said Chynybai Tursunbekov, candidate for the Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, second in the polls.
Otunbayeva came to power after a popular revolt in April toppled Bakiyev, a former opposition leader who had taken over after his Soviet-era predecessor was chased from office by street protesters in 2005. Bakiyev is now exiled in Belarus.