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Times of Central Asia (8 August 2017)

Three opposition parties in Kyrgyzstan have announced plans to merge and field a single candidate for the country’s presidential election scheduled for October 15.

Lawmakers representing the Onuguu-Progress party said on August 7 that its leader, Bakyt Torobaev, Mekenim-Kyrgyzstan (My Land - Kyrgyzstan) party chief Adakhan Madumarov, and Ata-Jurt (Homeland) party co-chairmen Akmatbek Keldibekov and Kamchybek Tashiev had decided to create a new political party, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported.

Under an agreement reached by the leaders on August 6, the new party — which does not yet have a name — will propose a single candidate for the presidential election.

Torobaev, Madumarov, Keldibekov, and Tashiev, who are among the 59 people who have filed documents required to become presidential candidates, are going through other steps before getting on the ballot.

Until September 1, the candidates should submit the entire package of documents to the Central Election Commission (CEC) including at least 30,000 signatures in their support, results of a test for the knowledge of the Kyrgyz language, and to pay a 1 million som electoral deposit. The final list of officially registered presidential candidates will be made public on September 10.

President Almazbek Atambayev, who has been in office since December 2011, is constitutionally barred from running for a second term.

The main candidates for the presidency are the current Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov and two former prime ministers — Temir Sariyev and Omurbek Babanov.