The FINANCIAL — Kyrgyzstan’s President-elect Sooronbai Jeenbekov was inaugurated on November 24 in the capital, Bishkek, in a first peaceful transfer of power in the region.
Jeenbekov replaces President Almazbek Atambaev, who was constitutionally barred from seeking a second term, according to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.
Jeenbekov was Atambaev’s prime minister from April 2016 to August 2017.
According to official results, Jeenbekov won the October 15 election with 54 percent of the vote — enought to avoid a runoff — after a campaign in which critics said the outgoing president used the courts, law enforcement, and other levers of power to put his former prime minister in power in the nation of six million.
Jeenbekov’s main rival Omurbek Babanov, who gained just short of 34 percent of the vote, has alleged the voting was marred by violations.
International observers have praised the vote as competitive and transparent, but said that “numerous and significant problems were noted” during the count and that “misuse of public resources, pressure on voters, and vote buying remain a concern.”
Jeenbekov’s inauguration marks the first peaceful handover of power from one elected president to another in any Central Asian country since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Discussion about this post