Page 64 - bneMag February 2021_20210202

64 I Eurasia bne February 2021
Sadyr Japarov: "There will be no dictatorship as some scaremongers say. There will be a dictatorship of law and justice."
Fears of authoritarianism as Kyrgyz populist wins landslide and backing for ‘Khanstitution’
Nizom Khodjayev in Almaty
Populist politician Sadyr Japarov, sprung from prison during the political unrest that broke out in Kyrgyzstan last October, won a landslide victory on a low turnout in the snap presidential vote held on January 10.
The 52-year-old Japarov’s release
from prison immediately led to him assuming the position of prime minister in October. He then quickly moved on
to taking the role of interim president before he positioned himself to run for the permanent presidency. Japarov’s lengthy prison sentence was the result of the kidnapping of a provincial governor during protests over the Canadian- owned Kumtor gold mine.
The presidential election – triggered as a result of the previous government’s collapse amid protests that broke out after a parliamentary election was
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condemned by opposition groups as rigged – saw Japarov secure 79.2% of the vote, according to preliminary results put out by Kyrgyzstan’s Central Election Commission (CEC). CEC data showed that voter turnout stood at a mere 39.88% and, as such, Japarov’s victory may reflect a general disillusionment
Candidates in the vote "could mostly campaign freely" but the campaign was "dominated by one candidate [Japarov] who benefited from disproportionate financial means and misuse of administrative resources, resulting in an uneven playing field," the observers from the Organization for Security
“One or two years will not be enough to fix everything, we can do it in three or four years and it will require stability”
with the political process in Kyrgyzstan. It has been ridden by scandals, surprise twists and back-stabbings, with the Northern and Southern Kyrgyz elites squabbling over control.
and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE’s) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) said in a preliminary report on January 11.