Kyrgyzstan's serving premier, Almazbek Atambayev (pictured), looked set to win the strategic country's presidency with more than half the votes counted on Sunday, but rival candidates say the vote was marred by irregularities.
Voters in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan began voting Sunday in a presidential election that is widely seen as a test of bold reforms to move from authoritarianism to a parliamentary democracy.
On June 10th 2010, ethnic violence broke out in Osh between Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities. 500 people, mostly Uzbeks, were killed, and hundreds of thousands more forced to flee Kyrgyzstan. Aid organisations have built thousands of homes to shelter Uzbeks whose homes were destroyed. But a year on, the situation for many of them is as bad as ever.
In the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, twelve months after ethnic bloodshed tore the city apart, many still live amid the rubble of their homes. In Sendai, north-eastern Japan, tsunami victims have been getting to know their neighbours. Finally in Hong Kong, the teacher is the pet, the pressure to pass exams has made tutoring a most glamorous profession.
The Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission, an independent body investigating last year's clashes between the country's ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities, alleged on Tuesday that Kyrgyz security forces were complicit in the violence which killed 470 people.
Kyrgyzstan's parliament elected a speaker and approved a new government on Friday, laying the groundwork for Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy. The election comes after months of tension and ethnic clashes that left over 400 people dead.
The virulently nationalist Ata-Zhurt party, whose leader has warned non-ethnic Kyrgyz citizens not to expect equal rights, scored a surpise victory in Sunday's vote, four months after ethnic violence threatened the country's stability.
Kyrgyzstan went to the polls for its first ever parliamentary elections Sunday. The vote represents a new democratic model for the country after years of rule by strongman President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted amid unrest last April.
As soon as night falls in Osh, special forces patrol, weapons at the ready. In June, ethnic clashes of a rare violence took place between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. Today, the tension remains palpable. Uzbeks barricade themselves into their neighbourhoods for fear of being targeted again.
Government forces in Kyrgyzstan clashed with demonstrators outside the capital Bishkek on Thursday, dispersing protesters with tear gas and arresting a renegade political leader who returned to the country this week after several years in exile.
