Kyrgyzstan MPs elect new prime minister
Baku, September 8 (AZERTAC). Kyrgyzstan's divided parliament elected a neutral candidate as prime minister on Wednesday in an attempt to avert political turmoil and revive the shrinking economy in the volatile Central Asian country.
Zhantoro Satybaldiyev, the 56-year-old head of the presidential administration, warned deputies in the five-party parliament that his new cabinet would take "unpopular measures" to fight corruption and restore growth.
Three of the five parties in parliament agreed this week to form a coalition government, two weeks after the previous administration collapsed under the strain of graft accusations against then-Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov.
His election as prime minister last December had been a glimpse of hope for many in the impoverished country, signalling the conclusion of an 18-month drive to build the first parliamentary democracy in otherwise authoritarian Central Asia.
But the Kyrgyz economy, which depends heavily on production from Canadian miner Centerra Gold's Kumtor mine, was dealt a heavy blow this year as output dropped, contributing to a 5 percentage-point contraction in January-July GDP.
Withdrawing from the previous coalition on August 22, deputies from the Ata-Meken party - which also sits in the new coalition - warned that Kyrgyzstan risked defaulting on its $2.8 billion foreign debt.
The only party outside the previous coalition, Ata Zhurt, enjoys strong support among Kyrgyz nationalists, particularly in the poorer south. It won marginally more seats than any other single party in the last parliamentary election in October 2010.
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