Kyrgyzstan parliament votes to hold snap November election

25/9/2025 15:52

Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted on Thursday to dissolve the legislature for snap elections in a move analysts said was likely to consolidate President Sadyr Japarov’s power.



The election will take place on November 30, local media quoted Speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek as saying, having previously been due by November 2026. Presidential elections are scheduled for January 2027.



Lawmakers argued that the snap poll was necessary because holding presidential and parliamentary elections close together would place a heavy financial and organisational burden on Kyrgyzstan, a relatively poor country whose economy has traditionally relied on remittances earned by migrants working in Russia.



Parliament is already dominated by parties loyal to Japarov, a nationalist and populist who swept to power in 2020 amid protests against an allegedly fraudulent election.



Kyrgyzstan, where street protests also removed presidents in 2006 and 2010, was long seen as the most democratic of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia with the region's freest media.