A view shows the renewed Kyrgyz national flag during a ceremony in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, January 1, 2024. REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov/File Photo
BISHKEK (Reuters) -Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted on Thursday to dissolve the legislature for snap elections in a move analysts said was likely to consolidate President Sadyr Japarov’s power.
The election will take place on November 30, local media quoted Speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek as saying, having previously been due by November 2026. Presidential elections are scheduled for January 2027.
Lawmakers argued that the snap poll was necessary because holding presidential and parliamentary elections close together would place a heavy financial and organisational burden on Kyrgyzstan, a relatively poor country whose economy has traditionally relied on remittances earned by migrants working in Russia.
Parliament is already dominated by parties loyal to Japarov, a nationalist and populist who swept to power in 2020 amid protests against an allegedly fraudulent election.
Kyrgyzstan, where street protests also removed presidents in 2006 and 2010, was long seen as the most democratic of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia with the region's freest media.
Since coming to power, however, Japarov has moved to consolidate control bringing the country's politics into line with more authoritarian neighbours.
Independent media outlets have been shut down, journalists jailed, and Japarov's administration has imposed sweeping controls over the internet.
Strong, near-double digit economic growth has boosted his popularity.
Temur Umarov, a Central Asia expert at the Carnegie Center in Berlin, said that the snap elections were Japarov’s attempt to tighten political control ahead of his own re-election bid in 2027.
“This is part of a broader process by President Sadyr Japarov to renew the political system and consolidate his regime,” Umarov said.
Predominantly Muslim Kyrgyzstan has offered a degree of diplomatic support to Russia, which operates military bases in the country, since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Kyrgyzstan has drawn the ire of some Western countries, including the U.S. and UK, both of which have sanctioned Kyrgyz banks they accuse of facilitating Russian sanctions busting.
(Reporting by Aigerim Turgunbaeva; Writing by Felix Light and Kate Mayberry)
