GENERAL OVERVIEW

Leonid BONDARETS

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Leonid Bondarets, Representative of the Central Asia and the Caucasus journal in Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)

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The processes which began in the republic during the events of March 2005 continued in 2006.

The domestic political situation, the main component of these processes, was characterized by a standoff between the legislative and executive power branches and the unflagging, although more subdued than last year, revolutionary activity of the population and the opposition, which occasionally overflowed into mass protest acts and disorder. For example, on 25 June, due to clashes among the supporters of the rivaling candidates for deputy, who hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at each other, the election to the Jogorku Kenesh (parliament) in the polling station of Tuzbel in the Kurshab constituency was disrupted. Pickets and demonstrations, as well as threats to close roads, in an attempt to have various demands met, were everyday occurrences. According to the media, two protest acts took place on average in the country every day.

One of the scandalous events that aroused an international response was the mass demonstrations in the provinces and capital by the supporters of criminal leader Rysbek Akmatbaev, who was suspended from the election to the Jogorku Kenesh. The Kyrgyz President’s speech to those who rallied at the Government House led to a hurried court case that eventuated in Rysbek Akmatbaev’s complete exculpation. As a result, he was allowed to participate in the election, at which he gathered 79.22% of the votes. And only the…………….

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