New governing coalition finally emerges in Kyrgyzstan

Fri, 17 Dec 2010

Bishkek/Moscow - Three Kyrgyz political parties have agreed on a new government coalition, local media reported Friday - two months after parliamentary elections were held in the conflict- plagued country.

The Social Democrats, who were involved in the overthrow of authoritarian president Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, will supply the new prime minister - the pro-Russian politician Almasbek Atambayev.

The Respublika party founded by oil businessman Omurbek Babanov and the Ata Zhurt party are also to be part of the coalition.

What remains unclear is whether the alliance will hold, given past tensions between its members. Ata Zhurt had won the most national assembly seats in October, but had initially been shunned during the coalition talks because many of its members were Bakiyev supporters.

A prior coalition-forming attempt by the Social Democratic Party - at the request of President Rosa Otunbayeva - had recently failed. Babanov, of Respublika, then led the next effort.

The three-way coalition would control 77 seats in the 120-member national assembly.

Ata Zhurt's involvement is considered important because the party is based in southern Kyrgyzstan, which had been the scene of bloody ethnic clashes in June that killed an estimated 2,000 people.

Ata Zhurt had promised voters peace and economic progress.

Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic that neighbors China, is the first country in otherwise authoritatively governed Central Asia to have become a parliamentary democracy.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358695,coalition-finally-emerges-kyrgyzstan.html.