Kyrgyzstan’s parliament has made a populist politician recently freed from jail prime minister, with Sadyr Japarov immediately saying he expected the country’s embattled president to step down. Hundreds of Japarov’s supporters took to the streets of capital Bishkek to celebrate, after a week that saw opposition supporters demonstrate and clash with police over a contested election. At least one person has died and over 1,000 have been injured in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country that neighbours China and has close ties with Russia. The violence also saw shots fired as groups of rival supporters clashed on Friday. Authorities have since banned rallies and imposed a 9pm-5am curfew in capital. China urges neighbour Kyrgyzstan to resolve election turmoil Japarov was made acting prime minister after a majority of lawmakers supported his candidacy at an extraordinary session of parliament. He said he expected President Sooronbay Jeenbekov to resign “in two to three days” in comments at his confirmation on Saturday. “I met with (Jeenbekov) here at the state residency. He said that after confirming the cabinet and government structures, he would resign,” Japarov said at his confirmation. A deputy speaker at the extraordinary session noted that Japarov would become acting president if Jeenbekov resigned. The speaker of parliament would normally step in, but the post was currently unfilled. Two sources in the parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they expected Jeenbekov to honour his pledge to step down. Japarov, a former lawmaker with a reputation as a headstrong nationalist, and former president Almazbek Atambayev were freed from prisons by their supporters in the early hours of Tuesday, along with several other prominent politicians. Kyrgyzstan opposition factions make rival power grabs as prime minister quits But while Japarov’s political star appeared on the rise Friday, Atambayev was rearrested by police and security forces following a raid on his compound outside Bishkek. “Special forces stormed (Atambayev’s) compound” and “arrested the former president”, his spokeswoman Kunduz Joldubayeva said. The State Committee for National Security confirmed the arrest on fresh charges of organising mass disorder. The committee added that it was currently “identifying and arresting other accomplices of this crime”. “Threat of murder and physical harm against judges and administrative employees” in jails had been used to free Atambayev and other politicians, including two former prime ministers, state prosecutors said Saturday. The prosecutors urged the freed politicians to return and serve out their sentences, but did not mention Japarov. Turmoil grips Kyrgyzstan as protesters storm parliament, election annulled Unrest in Kyrgyzstan has alarmed ally Moscow, which has watched neighbouring ally Belarus rocked by post-election protests and war break out over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was “deeply concerned” about the “situation resembling a mess and chaos” on Thursday. Kyrgyzstan has seen two presidents overthrown by street protests since independence from the Soviet Union. Japarov emerged as a leading player in the crisis on Tuesday when he claimed the title of prime minister before Jeenbekov had signed off on the resignation of the old premier. He was sentenced in 2017 to 11.5 years in jail on hostage-taking and other charges but that conviction was squashed by a court less than a day after his release. Jeenbekov came to power in 2017 with support from Atambayev but the two fell out soon afterwards and Atambayev was jailed during a previous bout of political violence last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom both men are loyal, failed in his attempt to resolve the pair’s stand-off. Additional reporting by Associated Press
