Tue 06 October 2020:
Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov has stepped down after the Central Electoral Commission annulled the results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections in response to accusations of vote-rigging.
Boronov and Dastan Jumabekov, the speaker of the country’s parliament, presented their resignation letters at a meeting of legislators in the capital Bishkek on Tuesday.
At an emergency session on Tuesday, the parliament appointed Sadyr Zhaparov, a founder of the opposition Mekenchil party, which had lost the election, as acting prime minister.
Earlier on Tuesday, Zhaparov had been released by protesters from prison, where he was serving a sentence of 11 years and six months for taking a government official hostage in 2013.
Thousands took to Ala-Too’s square on Monday to protest against electoral fraud. The riots that ensued saw the security services respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and shock grenades against the protesters, killing one 19-year-old and injuring 590.
Later that day, protesters stormed the White House, which hosts the offices of the country’s president and parliament.
A video that made rounds on social media saw members of the security services declare: “We’re with you.”
A group of 13 opposition parties on Tuesday formed a Coordinating Council which has temporarily assumed full responsibility for finding a way out of the current deadlock.
The mayors of Bishkek and Osh and the governors of Naryn, Talas, and Issyk-Kul regions have resigned.
While President Sooronbay Jeenbekov – who was allied with Boronov – made an appearance calling for calm, most believe his days in power are numbered.
‘People frustrated’
Kyrgyzstan is no stranger to political upheavals. In the past 15 years, the country faced two revolutions – in 2005 and 2010 – against the corrupt political class and electoral fraud.
The 2010 revolution saw ethnic clashes in the majority Uzbek south of the country in which more than 400 people lost their lives and many thousands were displaced.
The regional divide between north and south has long been the most significant split in Kyrgyz society, with the 2010 revolution seen as orchestrated by the north and imposed on the disenfranchised south.
The new constitution drafted following the upheaval was meant to bring about a parliamentary democracy.
But in 2020, the vision of a democratic Kyrgyzstan, often called the island of democracy in a heavily authoritarian region, seems far-fetched.
Sunday’s election saw widespread reports of vote-buying and high mobilisation of administrative resources in favour of the three main governing parties – especially Mekenim Kyrgyzstan, funded by the businessmen and former deputy customs chief Raimbek Matraimov.
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