Parliament picks Jeenbekov as new Kyrgyz premier
The parliament in Kyrgyzstan has approved a new prime minister and his cabinet as the country struggles to maintain regional balance of power in the internal politics.
Members of the parliament on Wednesday unanimously endorsed Sooronbai Jeenbekov as the new prime minister, approving an almost unchanged cabinet under his leadership.
Jeenbekov replaces Temir Sariyev, who resigned on April 11 amid corruption allegations. He is Kyrgyzstan’s sixth prime minister in as many years since a violent revolution in 2010 claimed hundreds of lives. Seventeen other people have occupied the post since the country emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This does not count a further six who has served as acting prime minister.
Jeenbekov, 57, is a close ally of single-term President Almazbek Atambayev and previously served as the deputy head of Atambayev's administration. He is from Kyrgyzstan’s restive southern region of Osh and his election could mean less frictions in the lone Central Asian democracy, where regional balancing is a notable feature of domestic politics.
Jeenbekov is from the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK), the largest party of four in the ruling coalition. Atambayev is himself from the north but backs the SDPK.
The new premier promised to work “honestly and openly” and do his utmost to fight corruption. His brother, Asylbek, also from the SDPK, resigned Wednesday as parliament speaker due to the fact that the current law prevents members of a single family occupying more than one important position at the same time.
A poor country of six million, Kyrgyzstan largely depends on remittances sent home by migrants working in Russia. However, the drop in the value of Russian ruble, triggered by the West’s sanctions against Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine and the fall in global oil prices, has also affected the economy of Kyrgyzstan. The production of gold in Kumtor mine, one of the country's biggest assets, has also slowed down, further complicating the problems.
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