Kyrgyz parliament backs new PM

 Kyrgyzstan's parliament on Friday overwhelmingly backed the president's chief of staff as the next prime minister after the ex-Soviet country's premier Sooronbai Jeenbekov quit to stand in presidential polls next month.

Ninety-seven MPs out of 102 present voted in favour of Sapar Isakov -- President Almazbek Atambayev's chief of staff -- and his proposed cabinet.

If as expected Atambayev signs off on the new government, Isakov will be the seventh premier to take office in the last seven years.

While Russia-allied Kyrgyzstan is seen as the most democratic state in the ex-Soviet Central Asian region dominated by long-ruling autocrats, it has also been the most politically volatile in recent times.

The Muslim-majority country experienced two revolutions that unseated presidents in 2005 and 2010 followed by ethnic violence that left over 400 people dead.

The presidential vote in October will feature two former prime ministers on the ballot in addition to Jeenbekov, who like Isakov is a loyal ally of the outgoing president Atambayev.

Two prominent candidates in opposition to Atambayev received prison sentences this month with both claiming the verdicts were politically motivated ahead of the vote.

Nationalist Sadyr Japarov and nominally socialist lawmaker Omurbek Tekebayev were given 11-and-a-half and eight-year prison sentences on kidnapping and graft charges respectively.

While leaders of the other ex-Soviet "Stans" are generally expected to die in office, Kyrgyz presidents are restricted to a single six-year term under the current constitution.

Source: AFP