Voters in Kyrgyzstan went to the polls yesterday, and were widely expected to hand pro-Russian parties a fresh five-year mandate in a parliamentary election overshadowed by ethnic tensions and rising Islamist radicalism in the impoverished ex-Soviet nation.
The mainly Muslim country of 6 million people has moved closer to Russia and away from the West in recent years. Under a deadline set by parliament, the US last year shut an air base in Kyrgzystan that served US operations in Afghanistan since 2001.
Kyrgyzstan, on a drug trafficking route from Afghanistan, remains vulnerable to political volatility after ousting two presidents in popular uprisings in 2005 and 2010.
The Social Democrats, who led the outgoing coalition, look set to emerge again as the largest party. They are still firmly associated with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, even though he formally stepped down as their leader after being elected head of state in 2011.
Atambayev, whose term ends in 2017, has indirectly backed the Social Democrats. He has opened roads, tunnels and other infrastructure and urged voters “to choose stability,” the party’s buzzword.
“The Social Democrats will all the same gather a lot of votes and enter a new legislature,” Lidia Antonova, a 51-year-old nurse, said after voting in the center of the capital, Bishkek.
“I voted for Kyrgyzstan Party, because this is the right hand of the president,” she said. “So may this party be also in parliament, and may the president have more support.”
More than 2,000 candidates representing 14 parties are running for the 120 seats in parliament, which enjoys stronger control of the government and economy than Kyrgyzstan’s more autocratic Central Asian neighbors.
Atambayev has forged warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which retains a military airbase in Kyrgyzstan, fearing an advance of militant Islam in the region.
Moscow has forgiven a lot of Kyrgyz debt and developed large economic projects in the landlocked Central Asian state.
Closely watching yesterday’s election was China, whose Xinjiang region borders Kyrgyzstan and which is present in several Kyrgyz industries, including energy and mining.
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