Kyrgyzstan's Pres tells parties to stop dividing country.

13/9 Tass 107

BISHKEK, September 13 (Itar-Tass) - Kyrgyzstan's Interim President
Roza Otunbayeva said Monday tough punishment will be in store for the
leaders of political parties who pedal on the inter-ethnic problems or
divide the country along the North/South principle in the run-up to the
October 10 parliamentary election.
According to the presidential press service, Otunbayeva said this
Monday during a trip to the country's southern Osh region, which saw the
scenes of bitter inter-ethnic violence earlier this year.
"I'd like to stress the toughness of measures that will be taken
against the parties, which will take the liberty of playing up the ethnic
problem and dividing the nation into 'northerners' and 'southerners' or
into tribes and clans in a bid to gain more political scores," the Interim
President said.
She promised that the incumbent authorities will do everything in
their power to make for upcoming parliamentary election "decent,
transparent and fair to the maximum."
"We're creating equitable conditions for all the participants in the
election procedures," Otunbayeva said.
The national Central Electoral Commission says a total of 29 political
parties have registered for the October 10 election. They submitted all
the required documents on time.
A pre-election campaign started off in Kyrgyzstan as of last Saturday.
It will wind up a day before the opening of polling stations.
The new parliament is due to have 120 members.
-0-kle/mil


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next