New constitution to establish parliamentary democracy

AFP - Kyrgyzstan on Sunday voted in favour of a new constitution, its interim leader announced, in a referendum marked by a mass turnout held just two weeks after ethnic clashes killed hundreds.
  
The constitution establishes a parliamentary democracy in Kyrgyzstan and its adoption was crucial for legitimising the new authorities who took power after the April riots that toppled president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
  
The interim government defiantly pressed ahead with the vote despite horrific clashes between minority Uzbeks and majority Kyrgyz earlier this month that killed hundreds and sparked fears the country faced collapse.
  
"The new constitution has been adopted, despite the savage attacks of its opponents,"

"Citizens voted to remove powers from the president and hand them to parliament" 28/06/10 7am GMT+2

Otunbayeva said hours after polls closed and well ahead of the announcement of any official results, only expected in the next two days.
  
"The people have put a full stop on the epoch of authoritarian, nepotistic management. Today we reached victory on the path to a true government of the people."
  
She put the turnout at an unexpectedly high 65.1 percent although the website of the central election commission said the figure was over 68 percent. Otunbayeva gave no source for her announcement the referendum has succeeded.
  
Respectable numbers were seen showing up throughout the day to cast their ballots in the southern city of Osh -- the epicentre of the violence -- with the situation calm and no reports of unrest, an AFP correspondent reported.
  
Bakiyev, who has taken sanctuary in Belarus, was blamed by the authorities for last month's bloodshed but has denied any involvement.
  
"We will show the world that Kyrgyzstan is united," Otunbayeva said earlier as she cast her vote in Osh. "We want to heal ourselves from the pain that struck as a result of the tragic events."
  
The authorities temporarily lifted a curfew in the south -- imposed in the wake of the violence -- so that the vote could go ahead. It will be reimposed after the vote and run from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am, Otunbayeva said.
  
"I voted 'yes' so that the situation gets better. Many Uzbeks have suffered and several members of my family died. I am scared but I came to vote," said Dlora Kazakbayeva, an Uzbek woman, after voting in Osh.
  
The new constitution will slash the powers of the president and  make the former Soviet republic ex-Soviet Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy in a region notorious for authoritarian leaders.
  
The referendum will set the stage for parliamentary elections that authorities have scheduled for early September to bring in a permanent government.
  
But several international observers warned the referendum is a premature step so soon after the violence.
  
Human Rights Watch said the referendum threatened to make the situation "even more volatile" while the International Crisis Group urged the government to reconsider the holding of the poll.
  
The list of voters was the main problem for the referendum and up to 16 percent of the electorate in some regions would not be able to vote, a total of some 200,000 people nationwide, government officials have admitted.
  
But he said the outside fears were unfounded and also slammed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other world leaders for suggesting that the country risked breaking up and "Afghanization".
  
However large-scale violence has ceased and authorities said Saturday that all 75,000 people who fled the violence to neighbouring Uzbekistan had now returned.
  
The clashes, which killed 283 people according to the latest toll, were the worst ethnic violence to hit impoverished Kyrgyzstan since it gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago.
  
Victims of the unrest have told AFP that the violence was a brutal and orchestrated campaign by armed Kyrgyz militias targeting Uzbeks, who make up about 14 percent of Kyrgyzstan's population of 5.3 million.
  
Officials have said the true death toll could have been as high as 2,000.