watch Kyrgyz vote in historic parliamentary election

Kyrgyz vote in historic parliamentary election


A Kyrgyz policeman provides security at a polling station in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010. Of the 29 parties in the running in Sunday's elections, at least half a dozen are expected to make it into a newly strengthened parliament, as an intensely fought and often ugly campaign draws to an end. (AP Photo/Nina Gorshkova)
By Peter Leonard
Associated Press Writer / October 10, 2010
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OSH, Kyrgyzstan—Polls opened in Kyrgyzstan for parliamentary elections Sunday to choose a new and empowered parliament that the government hopes will usher in a new era of democracy.


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The vote comes after an exhausting year of political turbulence and ethnic violence in the south.

Security has been tightened for the vote in the Central Asian nation in a bid to prevent any possible outbreaks of unrest.

Kyrgyzstan, which hosts a strategically vital U.S. air base near Afghanistan, is set to embrace a parliamentary system of governance. This marks a sharp departure from the strongman model exercised under President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in April amid violent public demonstrations.

Heading to cast his ballot a polling station at the agriculture institute in the southern city of Osh, 49-year old history teacher Ermek Suleimanov said the vote was a momentous turning point for the country.

"If in the past voting was just a formality, now we will find out who the people really want to lead them," Suleimanov said.

President Roza Otunbayeva said Saturday that the elections will be held in a spirit of fairness and transparency.

All eyes are on the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, where violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in June left more than 400 people dead, most of them Uzbeks, and displaced around 400,000 people.

Truckloads of police drove into Osh throughout the night, boosting the presence of security forces in the city.

In the ethnic Uzbek suburb of Sharq, a steady flow of voters headed to a local polling station Sunday morning on the site of a school burned down during the riots.
Coppied by http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/10/10/kyrgyzstan_goes_to_the_polls_in_historic_election/