Kyrgyzstani presidential election, 2009

The presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan in 2009 were held on 23 July of the year. It was early elections - President Bakiyev was elected in 2005 for five years.

Candidates

Incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev was declared on 1 May 2009 by his party Ak Dschol for candidates. As early as 20 April, the opposition United People's Movement had nominated the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev and former Prime Minister as its candidate. On May 19, former Defense Minister Ismail Isakov said that he would forgo his planned candidacy to support Atambayev. In addition to Bakiyev and Atambayev there were four other candidates.

On election day, Atambayev said he preferred his candidacy because of massive vote-rigging. The same did the candidate Dschenischbek Nasaralijew.

Result

At the official inauguration on August 2 Bakiyev made ​​the fight against corruption and poverty to his major concerns for the second term.

Protests

The opposition already called on election day their supporters to protest against the " election fraud " on, but these were promptly banned by the authorities. A little later, the opposition claimed victory for themselves: Atambayev had received information according to their own election observers 60 % of the vote. Further attempts of the opposition to gather for protest rallies were quickly suppressed by the police.

The election observers from the OSCE declared on the day after the election, incumbent Bakiyev had been unfairly supported by the state apparatus. The conduct of the election was a disappointment. Western election observers had complained numerous violations of the authorities in advance. In contrast, an observer mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States described the elections as open and free; it had been found no major irregularities.