Kyrgyzstan’s interim government on Wednesday set a date for parliamentary and presidential elections, stepping up efforts to build legitimacy after the country’s ousted president fled into exile.
The elections will be held on Oct. 10, said Omurbek Tekebayev, deputy head of the interim government, which took power two weeks ago in a popular uprising that ousted former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Speaking on national television, Tekebayev said the country would also hold a referendum on a new constitution on June 27.
STABILITY
The US and EU had urged the interim government to hold elections in order to restore stability in Kyrgyzstan.
Tekebayev said the new constitution to be presented to voters in the June 27 referendum would make Kyrgyzstan a parliamentary republic, reduce the powers of the president and prevent authoritarianism.
“In the new draft, the state and political system will be set up to prevent concentration of power in one hands [sic],” Tekebayev said. “The president will lose his immunity and his family will not be subsidized by the state. The head of state will live on his own salary.”
The announcement of the election date came a day after Bakiyev broke his silence for the first time since fleeing into exile last week in order to declare that he still regarded himself as Kyrgyzstan’s president.
“I do not recognize my resignation. Nine months ago the people of Kyrgyzstan elected me their president and there is no power that can stop me. Only death can stop me,” Bakiyev said in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
Bakiyev also denounced the interim government as “bandits” and urged the international community to refrain from granting them legitimacy.
MALE BRAVADO
The leader of the interim government, Roza Otunbayeva, dismissed Bakiyev’s combative declaration as “the bravado of a man in the agony of his own helplessness.”
The interim government said Bakiyev submitted his resignation as one of the conditions for being allowed to leave Kyrgyzstan, and his signed resignation letter had been shown on television.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was