Parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan will be officially announced on August 9 or 10, according to former Deputy Prime Minister Omurbek Tekebayev. A presidential administration official said the elections will be formally announced when the state of emergency for the Jalalabad region, the city of Osh, and parts of the Osh region is lifted.
The elections must be formally announced no later than 60 calendar days before they take place, in accordance with the interim government’s decree introducing changes to the Kyrgyz election code, which President Roza Otunbayeva signed on July 1. Otunbayeva and members of her cabinet have repeatedly confirmed that the elections will be held on October 10, although they have not made an official announcement.
Some experts, however, have called for postponing the elections. Keeping the October 10 date risks destabilizing Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz political scientist Mars Sariev said in an August 3 interview with the Akipress news agency. Sariev cited an undeveloped political culture, the country’s difficult economic situation, the deepening north-south divide among the Kyrgyz political elite, and the existence of certain destructive political forces that could make the election campaign a precursor to another wave of turmoil. His opinion was shared by another political scientist, Tamerlan Ibraimov, who did not exclude the possibility of conflict and unrest during the elections. Artur Medetbekov, former deputy chairman of the State National Security Service, warned that unfair or rigged elections will make more bloodshed inevitable.
President Otunbayeva also said that she expects the election process to be complicated and antagonistic. But she promised to work vigorously to provide open and transparent elections.
