Kyrgyzstan is conducting snap parliamentary elections on November 30. The deadline for would-be candidates to hand in their forms was October 30.
Nearly 600 prospective contenders have submitted registration forms to run for the 90 seats in parliament. The Central Election Commission (CEC) now has until November to process candidates’ applications to ensure they meet all the requirements to participate in the upcoming poll. Those who qualify will then have 18 days to convince voters in their districts to cast their ballots for them.
The Basics
These will be the ninth parliamentary elections held in Kyrgyzstan since the country became independent in late 1991. The reason officials gave for moving elections forward from November 2026 is that the next presidential election is scheduled for January 2027.
However, in June 2025, amendments to the electoral system came into effect that changed the voting system and redivided electoral districts, opening the way to hold early elections. Parliament voted to dissolve itself in late September, and shortly after, the date of the forthcoming election was announced.
To be eligible to run for a seat in parliament, a Kyrgyz citizen must be at least 25 years old, have a higher education, and have lived continuously in Kyrgyzstan for the last five years. Anyone with a criminal record is barred from participating.
In Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections in the 1990s and early 2000s, some prominent opposition figures were convicted of what appeared to be politically motivated charges and imprisoned to prevent them from taking part in elections. This happened to so many opposition politicians that after Kyrgyzstan’s first revolution, the Tulip Revolution of March 2005, a rule was introduced that allowed people with previous convictions to run for office.
Now, an exception is made only for those whose convictions were later overturned.
What’s New?
These elections will be decided through single-mandate voting. That is not new. It was the way Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections were conducted until 2007.
The constitutional referendum of October 2007 changed the electoral system and introduced voting by party-list. Then-President Kurmanbek Baliyev formed the Ak-Jol party immediately after the referendum, and the party went on to win more than 60% of seats in parliament in the elections in December 2007. Bakiyev’s attempts to concentrate power into his hands eventually backfired and played a role in his ouster in the revolution of April 2010.
Elections continued to be conducted by party list in 2010, 2015, and 2020. However, the elections of 2020 were plagued by allegations of rigging and vote-buying during the campaign, and when two pro-government parties won the majority of seats, it sparked another revolution that saw current President Sadyr Japarov come to power. The deputies elected in 2015 remained in their posts for more than another year.
The last parliamentary elections in November 2021 were held using a mixed system, whereby 36 seats were decided by single-mandate voting, and 54 by party lists.
President Japarov signed amendments to the election laws in June 2025, one of which was to decide the vote solely through single-mandate selection. The previous 36 single-mandate districts used for the 2021 election were reduced to 30 with three deputies for each district, and the map was redrawn accordingly. In the upcoming elections, the three candidates who receive the most votes in their district will win seats in parliament.
No women candidates were elected in the single-mandate districts in 2021. Under a new election rule, at least one of the three candidates elected in each district must be a woman, but at least one must also be a man. There will be no by-elections.
Of the 90 deputies who won seats in the 2021 parliamentary elections, 27 either stepped down or were forced to relinquish their mandates for legal or ethical reasons. Now, the person who received the fourth largest number of votes in the district where a seat has been vacated will automatically become a deputy. In a case where a female deputy is leaving her post, the female candidate from her district with the next highest vote tally will take the seat.
When registration ended on October 30, the CEC said 589 people had submitted the relevant forms to run for seats in parliament, of which 365 were men and 224 were women. That number is bound to be reduced as the CEC disqualifies people for insufficient information or failure to meet the criteria. At least seven have already been denied registration.
Each candidate can employ up to 1,000 campaigners, up from the 500 allowed in previous elections. In an interview in early October, President Japarov questioned the need for 1,000 official campaigners, noting that he was a candidate in previous elections and, “I’ve never hired so many canvassers for any district.”
Candidates can also employ bloggers to campaign for them on social networks, but must conclude a contract that guarantees pay for their services.
Candidates can accept donations, but no individual, organization, or business can contribute more than 200,000 som (about $2,287). All campaign contributions must be deposited in the candidates’ accounts in either Ayyl Bank or Eldik Bank. Donations cannot be made to other banks.
Campaigning for the November 28, 2021, parliamentary elections started on October 29, 30 days before election day. Campaigning for the October 4, 2020, parliamentary elections started on September 4, also 30 days before the elections. But Kyrgyzstan’s election rules do not specify 30 days for campaigning. Chapter 1, Article 5 of the election regulations states that, “Pre-election campaign[ing] shall begin on the day when registration of all candidate lists is completed.“
The deadline for candidates to hand over their documents to participate in the upcoming poll ended on October 30, but the CEC now has until November 10 to review each candidate’s registration documents to ensure they meet the criteria. That means candidates have only after the registration process officially ends on November 10 at 8:00 in the morning local time on November 29 to campaign in their districts.
The Voters
According to Kyrgyzstan’s Central Election Commission, 4.287 million citizens are eligible to cast ballots. There will be 2,492 polling stations working inside Kyrgyzstan on election day. Registered voters can cast their ballot anywhere they are in Kyrgyzstan. Previously, people voted in the electoral district where they held residency, but in the November 30 elections, a person need only present their ID to be able to vote in any precinct.
For citizens outside the country, there are 91 polling stations scattered across 31 countries. Most are in Russia, where there will be polling stations in 36 cities, followed by Turkey with eight, and the United States with six.
Only 32.25% of voters cast ballots in the November 2021 parliamentary elections. This was likely due in part to that poll being the fourth election Kyrgyzstan had conducted in 14 months. In the October 2020 parliamentary elections, 58.89% of the electorate voted. In the January 2021 presidential election that Sadyr Japarov won, 39.16% of voters participated. There was also a referendum held concurrently with the presidential election. That referendum approved changing to a presidential form of government, necessitating another referendum in April to approve amendments to the constitution. In that constitutional referendum of April 2021, only 36.66% of voters cast ballots.
The October 2020, January 2021, and April 2021 votes were conducted when the COVID pandemic was still raging, though by the November 2021 parliamentary elections, vaccines were widely available
The authorities would like a better turnout than was seen in the 2021 elections. The ability to vote at any polling station in Kyrgyzstan should help bring up the numbers.
