BISHKEK (TCA) — Bakyt Torobayev, the leader of Onuguu-Progress party, will run for the post of Kyrgyzstan’s president in the next election scheduled for this autumn, Kyrgyz media report.
Torobayev has been nominated at the party’s congress today, February 10.
Torobayev, 44, is the leader of Onuguu-Progress’s faction in the Kyrgyz parliament.
Torobayev was born in Jalal-Abad in southern Kyrgyzstan.
In 2007-2009 he was a member of Parliament.
In 2009-2010 Torobayev served as minister of emergency situation of Kyrgyzstan.
Torobayev is the second Kyrgyz politician, after Temir Sariyev, who has officially announced his intention to run for president.
Kyrgyzstan’s former Prime Minister Temir Sariyev announced that he will run for president at his Ak Shumkar political party’s conference on February 4.
Sariyev, 53, served as prime minister from May 2015 through April 2016, when he resigned after several parliament members accused his cabinet of corruption.
Sariyev was a member of the Kyrgyz parliament from 2000 until 2007. Between April and June 2010, he was a deputy head of the interim government and minister of finance, following the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in a popular uprising in April 2010. From December 2011 until his appointment as prime minister in 2015, Sariyev served as economy minister.
Kyrgyzstan is the only country in Central Asia in which the president is limited to a single term.
Incumbent President Almazbek Atambayev has said publicly that he would not seek political office, including the post of the prime minister, after his presidential term ends, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported.
In December, Kyrgyzstan held a constitutional referendum which approved 26 amendments, including changes shifting key powers from the president to the prime minister.
The move has been criticized by Atambayev’s opponents, who suspect it is designed to pave the way for him to stay in power after his term ends following the election this year.
