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New Kyrgyz Constitution Takes Effect

   VOA News 02 July 2010
   Members  of  a  local  election  commission open a ballot box to count
   votes  after  a referendum at a polling station in the southern Kyrgyz
   city  of  Osh,  Kyrgyzstan,  Sunday,  June  27,  2010.  The  people of
   violence-wracked Kyrgyzstan voted Sunday on a new constitu

Photo: AP

   Members  of a local election commission count votes after a referendum
   at a polling station in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, 27 June 2010

   A  new  constitution  took  effect  in Kyrgyzstan Friday, as officials
   announced the final results from the country's referendum.
   Central  Election  Commission  official  Akylbek  Sariyev said over 90
   percent  of voters on Sunday backed the new charter, which establishes
   Kyrgyzstan as a parliamentary republic.
   Sariyev said interim leader Roza Otunbayeva was officially approved as
   interim president until the end of 2011.  She is expected to be sworn
   in  during  an  inauguration  ceremony  on  Saturday and parliamentary
   elections are set for October 10.
   Kyrgyzstan's interim government has struggled to impose order since it
   took power following the April 7 deadly uprising that ousted President
   Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
   An  estimated  2,000  people were killed during ethnic clashes between
   Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that erupted in  June in the southern cities of Osh
   and Jalalabad.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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