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Monday October 22, 2:49 PMKyrgyzstan to hold parliamentary elections on December 16
Bakiyev "signed a decree for the dissolution of parliament and set early parliamentary elections for December 16," the spokesman said, shortly after the results of Sunday's referendum were announced. The constitutional reforms, which limit the president's powers, are a bid to end years of political upheaval in the strategic Central Asian state following a popular revolt in 2005 that brought Bakiyev to power. This former Soviet republic hosts both Russian and US military bases. The head of the central electoral commission said earlier on Monday that 75.04 percent of voters had approved the new constitution, while 3.69 percent had voted against it. Some 80 percent of registered voters took part in the polls, officials said. Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev said he had voted "in the hope that with the adoption of the new constitution there will be an end to the political disputes which have gone on for too long." Bakiyev initially opposed the reforms, which limit the president's ability to dismiss parliament, switch to proportional representation in parliament and give lawmakers more power in forming the government. But he reluctantly accepted them last year after mass protests. Earlier this month, Bakiyev announced the creation of his own political party called Ak-Zhol, the People's Party. A protest against rigged parliamentary elections sparked a revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 that toppled Bakiyev's predecessor Askar Akayev, who fled to Russia after his ouster. |
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