BISHKEK: Five parties won seats in Kyrgyzstan's new parliament on Monday, a fragmented result that means tough negotiations lie ahead to form a coalition to lead the Central Asian state out of failed authoritarian rule. Kyrgyzstan is trying to form the first parliamentary democracy in a region dominated by post-Soviet strongmen, only four months after hundreds died in ethnic violence and six months after its president was toppled in a popular uprising. Sunday's election was hailed by international observers and passed without violence and only minor reports of fraud. Under new rules, parliament will be the country's main decision-making body, assuming more power than the president. More than half of the electorate voted, but no party secured more than 9 percent of the vote. Ata Zhurt, a party whose members include former colleagues of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, narrowly placed first with 8.7 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said with almost all votes counted. The other four parties that won seats include one whose leader was an architect of the reforms that shifted power to parliament, and two that staunchly oppose the changes. “We can be proud of the fact that these elections were completely different to those we have seen before,” President Roza Otunbayeva said in a televised address. Otunbayeva says she will remain as president until Dec. 31, 2011. After nearly two decades of authoritarian rule since the collapse of the Soviet Union, interim leaders want to empower a prime minister to bridge political and ethnic rifts. Otunbayeva came to power after a popular revolt in April toppled Bakiyev, a former opposition leader who had taken over after his Soviet-era predecessor was chased from office by street protesters in 2005. Bakiyev is now exiled in Belarus.
