Kyrgyzstan President Says Ready to Resign After Mass Unrest
Kyrgyzstan President Says He’s Ready to Resign After Mass Unrest
(Bloomberg) -- Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov said he was ready to resign as soon as the nation established legitimate executive power in a bid to curtail the political chaos stemming from a disputed parliamentary election on Sunday.
“The political situation in the country has reached the critical point,” Jeenbekov said according to a statement posted on the presidential website. He also proposed to annul recent election results and called for a new vote to stabilize the country.
Demonstrators protesting the results earlier this week and overran the parliament building and released a former president from jail. One person was killed and 590 wounded in the clashes that night between protesters and security forces, the government said.
Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov resigned and was replaced by opposition politician Sadyr Zhaparov, who was freed earlier from prison by protesters, the legislature’s press service said.
“We need to return the current situation back on a legitimate path as soon as possible,” Jeenbekov said in the statement. He added he would be “ready to resign from the Kyrgyzstan Republic president post,” after legitimate officials of executive authorities are approved and the country takes a track to legality.
Kyrgyzstan, a country of 6.5 million on China’s western border, is one of the poorest states in Central Asia, economically reliant on remittances from workers abroad, agriculture and minerals production. A close Russian ally, the country is a member of the Moscow-led Eurasian Union.
Jeenbekov urged the government to quit and allow the country to name a new cabinet. Two of its presidents have been toppled by popular protests since 2005.
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