New leader seeks to join poll re-run

BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan’s new acting president Sadyr Japarov, who came to power last week in a popular uprising, may run for a full term if the country amends its constitution to allow it, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted him as saying yesterday.

The Central Asian nation’s constitution bars caretaker presidents from running in the elections they oversee. Mr Japarov took over as acting president last week after unrest toppled his predecessor Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s government.

As prime minister and acting head of state, Mr Japarov must now oversee a rerun of an Oct 4 parliamentary election which was annulled after prompting violent protests, and a presidential election due to be held by mid-January.

A nationalist opposition figure who had been serving a sentence for attempting to kidnap a political opponent, he was freed from prison by his followers during the protests and named prime minister last week. The uprising was the third popular revolt to topple a president in Kyrgyzstan since 2005.

The former Soviet republic, which is closely allied with Russia and borders China, has yet to set the dates of either vote. Amending the constitution to allow Mr Japarov to run might require holding a referendum before the presidential election.

Mr Japarov last week named his closest ally Kamchybek Tashiyev head of state security and published a longterm programme hinting he planned to become more than a temporary leader.