Kyrgyzstan: new prime minister appointed, violence spreads

A huge crowd in downtown Bishkek contested the results the day after the legislative elections on October 5, 2020, AP Photo / Vladimir Voronin

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Events have accelerated in Kyrgyzstan since Sunday's disputed legislative elections.

The ballot was canceled after protests that escalated into clashes with the police, at least one dead and hundreds injured.

On Tuesday evening, the Prime Minister resigned and it was a nationalist released from prison who took his place.

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Sadyr Japarov is the name of the new prime minister in Kyrgyzstan, a nationalist released from prison by protesters on Monday evening, just like ex-president Almaz-bek Atambayev, who was imprisoned for corruption.

Japarov was appointed at an extraordinary meeting of Parliament held in a hotel in the capital Bishkek, with the Parliament occupied by protesters, as was the

seat of government.

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The prime minister was forced to resign, while the

overturned the result of Sunday's disputed election. 

This is what the demonstrators demanded, who had taken to the streets in large numbers to denounce a poll marred by fraud.

Two parties close to President Sooronbai Jeenbekov were given the winners.

The protests degenerated into clashes with the police but also looting, in Bishkek and other parts of the country where gold and coal mines were reportedly attacked by armed gangs.

Kyrgyzstan is familiar with these revolutions.

Protest movements took place in 2005 and 2010 each time provoking the overthrow of the current regime.

Towards a civil war ? 

Will the president have to leave and allow a new vote?

He seems in any case in bad shape.

David Gaüzere, associate member of the Montesquieu Center for Political Research (University of Bordeaux 4) does not rule out a civil war between the south and the north of the country:

I do not exclude this possibility of fragmentation of the country in two, in the north pole and in the south pole ...

David Gaüzere, associate member of the Montesquieu Center for Political Research (University of Bordeaux 4)

Heike schmidt

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• Kyrgyzstan

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