Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

Kyrgyzstan elects on the national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. All 90 members of the legislative Supreme Council (Jorgorku Kenesh) are elected by party list proportional representation.

Past elections

(Courtesy of IFES Kyrgyzstan)

Kyrgyzstan held a presidential election on 23 July 2009.  The election turnout was reported at 79.3%.  Incumbent president Kurmanbek Bakiyev won the poll with 83.8% of votes.  On the polling day, Almazbek Atambayev, the United Opposition candidate and the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, the only opposition party represented in parliament, withdrew his candidacy claiming widespread fraud. 

The OSCE stated that Bakiyev gained an "unfair advantage" and that the media bias "did not allow voters to make an informed choice." Additionally, they found that the election was "marred by many problems and irregularities", citing ballot stuffing and problems with the vote counting.  An opposition rally of 1,000 people in Balykchy during election day was broken up by riot police. 

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Kyrgyzstan held a parliamentary election on 16 December 2007.  The election was called by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev after the constitutional referendum on 21 October 2007 approved a new electoral system and constitutional reform proposals, enlarging the parliament to 90 MPs and introducing party-list voting. Pro-presidential party Ak Jol won a landslide victory and gained 71 out of 90 seats.