Politics

Kyrgyzstan to repeat cancelled parliamentary elections in autumn

Nur-Sultan, Mar 1 (efe-epa).- Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov said on Monday that the parliamentary elections that were annulled in October will be repeated in autumn.

The polls last year, which were cancelled after their results were dismissed as fraudulent by the opposition, caused a serious political and institutional crisis that brought down the then head of state, Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

“Parliamentary elections will be held in autumn,” Zhaparov said in an interview with Kazinform news agency to mark his first official visit to Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan, on Tuesday and Wednesday as Kyrgyz president, a post he assumed in January after winning the presidential election with almost 80 percent of the vote.

Legislative elections were due to be held again in June, but the country’s Central Election Commission has yet to set a date.

The electoral body annulled the result of the parliamentary elections on 6 October, two days after the poll was held, after only two members of the opposition won seats and the other parties that failed to enter the legislature called for protests.

The election result led to riots in the early hours of October 5, in which one person was killed and a thousand injured.

Jeenbekov called for the elections to be reviewed and annulled if necessary, but he resigned under intense pressure from the opposition, which he said was to facilitate a way out of the crisis.

“For 30 years, corruption has been deeply rooted in our country. Some 300 Kyrgyz families got richer and the rest got poorer. As a result, we had a third revolution” last October, Zhaparov said in the interview.

“We are now establishing law and justice. Of course, this cannot be achieved in just one year. It will take two or three,” he said.

After last week’s trip to Russia, Kazakhstan will be the second country that Zhaparov will visit as Kyrgyz president.

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