Landmark Election in Kyrgyzstan

Posted on Oct 10, 2010

AP / Alexander Zemilanichenko

An man reads his ballot as he prepares to vote in a village in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday.

Following a coup, bitter ethnic violence and skyrocketing food prices, Kyrgyzstan managed to hold a peaceful landmark election on Sunday that may well establish the beleaguered country as the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia. —JCL

The Guardian:

International observers today described the election as largely free and fair – a remarkable feat in a region run by democracy-averse super-presidents all apparently in the job for life.

In an address to the nation yesterday, Kyrgyzstan’s interim president, Rosa Otunbayeva, called it a “new page” in Kyrgyzstan’s 20-year history. “We are not just choosing a new parliament. We’re ushering in a new system of government – a parliamentary republic,” she said.

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