Kyrgyz leader Japarov gets parliament to reset election date

BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstans President Sadyr Japarov has persuaded parliament to push back the date of the next election by several months, in an indication he may be turning his thoughts towards running for a second term.

At Japarovs request, lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to hold the next presidential vote on January 24, 2027, instead of October 18, 2026. This would ensure he serves the full six years of his mandate, which analysts said suggested he was thinking about extending his presidency.

If he ran again and won, Japarov, 56, would be the first Kyrgyz president in two decades to secure a second term. Since long-serving ruler Askar Akayev was toppled in 2005, two other presidents, including Japarovs immediate predecessor, have been ousted in revolutions.

He hasnt said it himself yet, but both by law and by the state of affairs in the country, it would probably make sense for him to run for a second term. Some of his team have said hes expected to do this, political scientist Emil Juraev told Reuters.

Japarov, who as an opposition politician was jailed between 2017 and 2020, swept to power that year on the back of protests against alleged fraud in a parliamentary election. He won a snap presidential election in January 2021.

The nationalist politician has brought Kyrgyzstans once chaotic political scene under his firm control, including through populist moves like the 2021 nationalisation of the Kumtor gold mine, one of Central Asias largest. This year he signed a border deal to end a conflict with neighbouring Tajikistan.

Traditionally the most democratic of the five Central Asian states that emerged from the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan has in recent years become more aligned with its authoritarian neighbours.

Under Japarov, Kyrgyzstan has introduced a law against so-called foreign agents along the