Kyrgyz elections include 148 parties

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BISHKEK – Kyrgyzstan has 148 political parties registered for the October parliamentary elections, EurasiaNet reported July 27.

The number of parties is too large for such a small country, Bazarbay Temishov, founder of the Ata-Jurt Party, told EurasiaNet. Supporting observers warned that the multiplicity of parties could cause violent political feuding in a country that already has suffered several rounds of unrest this year.

Not all are pessimistic. The Kyrgyz will do anything to avoid a repetition of the instability they have endured, Akzhol Berdiyev, a former advisor of deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, told EurasiaNet.

Parties led by former interim government officials are likely to be heavyweights in the elections, analysts told IWPR. However, they might suffer from the perception that their leaders were ineffectual when violence erupted in the south in June, predicted analyst Marat Kazakpayev.