BISHKEK, April 19 — Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov sacked his cabinet today after a surprise no-confidence vote in parliament amid an apparent power struggle between the head of state and the leader of the ruling party.
The Central Asian nation of six million people, which hosts a Russian military base, has been volatile since gaining its independence from Moscow in 1991, with political conflicts erupting into violent revolutions in 2005 and 2010.
Thursday’s no-confidence vote followed criticism of the cabinet’s 2017 annual report by opposition parties.
The ruling coalition, led by former Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev’s Social Democratic party, suddenly withdrew its backing for Prime Minister Sapar Isakov, with 101 deputies out of 112 present voting against him.
Sacking Isakov completes a series of reshuffles that Jeenbekov began shortly after coming to power last November, removing the appointees of his predecessor Atambayev from state security and the prosecutor-general’s office.
Atambayev, who chairs the Social Democratic party but is not a member of parliament, had backed Jeenbekov in the presidential election but started criticising him this month in a sign of a rift between the two.
Atambayev could not be reached for comment today. — Reuters
