Kyrgyzstan votes in snap parliamentary election with no opposition

In Kyrgyzstan’s snap parliamentary election, allies of President Sadyr Japarov are expected to receive a resounding victory.

No formal parties or organized opposition are present for Sunday’s vote, which will give Japarov more power.

Since 2020, Japarov, a populist and nationalist, has held steady control of Kyrgyzstan, which has traditionally been the most democratic nation in Central Asia.

A victory for his allies would set the stage for a 2027 presidential election, which is expected to elect Japarov to resign.

The vibrant political life in the mountainous nation of about 7 million people was significant after Kyrgyzstan’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In protests against elections that some claimed were rigged, in 2005, 2010, and 2020, Kyrgyz leaders were overthrown, and the region’s media was historically their freest.

However, Japarov has repressed the media and opposition groups since taking office in response to the protests in 2020.

By November 2026, a vote was scheduled, but the parliament decided to dissolve itself for a quick election.

Western-style thinking “did not work”

The president’s popularity, according to Edil Baisalov, Kyrgyzstan’s deputy prime minister and ally of Japarov, was partly due to rejecting the instability of previous decades, which he claimed had not provided stability or improved living standards.

He told the Reuters news agency, “We spent the first 30 years trying to copy.” We believed that our society would live in Western nations and adopt a parliamentary system akin to Westminster. However, it failed and will continue to fail.”

Baisalov claimed that Kyrgyzstan should be protected from what he claimed were negative social media platforms’ propagating of negative sentiments, in which independent journalists have been labeled as “extremists.”

Bolot Ibragimov, an opposition candidate in Bishkek’s capital, predicted that about 80% of the parliament, which is dominated by allies of Japarov, would be re-elected.

Strong economic growth, the fastest in Central Asia, supports Japarov’s support for banning online porn and forbidding the death penalty, despite rising inflation and power shortages that are lowering living standards.

According to economists, Kyrgyzstan’s rise is largely attributable to its status as a major importer clearinghouse due to sanctions brought on by the conflict in Ukraine.

Numerous Kyrgyz banks and cryptocurrency companies have been subject to sanctions by Western nations as a result of their efforts to evade Russian sanctions.

In the run-up to the election, Japarov has embraced ties to Russia, which has military installations in Kyrgyzstan and employs many migrant workers there.