Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Kubatbek Boronov he resigned after Tuesday the Electoral Commission had invalidated the results of the parliamentary elections on Sunday. The decision came following large protests by demonstrators who had contested the results, denouncing fraud and buying and selling votes. The elections had been won by the Birimdik and Mekenim Kyrgyzstan parties, which support President Jeenbekov. In addition to Prime Minister Boronov, Dastan Jumabekov, the president of parliament, also resigned.
On Tuesday, in an extraordinary session of parliament, that during the night it had been occupied by demonstrators, Sadyr Zhaparov, one of the founders of the opposition party Mekenchil, was appointed prime minister. Zhaparov was released from prison on Monday by protesters, where he was serving a sentence of 11 years and six months for taking a government official hostage in 2013.
Also President Sooronbay Jeenbekov he said he was ready to step down. During the protests, Jeenbekov had told the BBC, in an exclusive telephone interview from a secret hideout, that “the main goal of the protesters was not to cancel the election results,” but to remove him from power. The president said he was ready to cancel the result even before the official announcement of the Electoral Commission arrived. Then he added that he was “ready to entrust the responsibility to strong leaders, regardless of the group to which they belong,” declaring himself willing to help those who will replace him, but without mentioning their name.
On Monday in the capital Bishkek there were clashes, which had gone on all night, in which one person had died and nearly 600 had been injured, mainly among the demonstrators. According to local media, there were about 4 thousand demonstrators in the capital Bishkek, while minor protests took place in other areas of the country. In the capital, the police used water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd. The protests began on Monday after the results of the parliamentary elections were released in which only four out of sixteen parties had managed to elect their own representatives in the Kyrgyz parliament.
In the night between Monday and Tuesday a group of demonstrators he broke into parliament, destroying documents that had been thrown out of the buildings. Protesters had managed to free former President Almazbek Atambayev and some former senior officials from prison. On June 23, 2020 Atambayev was sentenced by a Kyrgyz court to 11 years and two months in prison for the responsibilities in the release of the criminal Aziz Batukaev, which took place in 2013. Also, in 2019 he had been accused of murder and causing mass unrest.
In the elections, the pro-government party Birimdik had obtained over 26 per cent of the votes, the Mekenim Kyrgyzstan party, also considered close to the outgoing government, had obtained more than 24 per cent of the votes. Only two other parties had exceeded the 7 percent threshold required to obtain seats in parliament, of which only one openly opposed to the outgoing government. According to the monitoring commission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which on Monday released a report on the elections, fundamental rights and freedoms were generally respected, but also called the allegations of buying and selling “credible”. votes.
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