Kyrgyzstan elects parliamentary speaker

Kyrgyzstan's governing coalition elected a parliamentary speaker on Friday in a bid to end months of upheaval and violence.

Under the new model of government, parliament will be the main decision-making body and the prime minister will assume more power than the president.

"The main task now is to move quickly to form a legitimate government which will be accountable to us," the new speaker, Akhmatbek Keldibekov, told parliament after his election.

Deputies were expected to hold a vote on the new government later on Friday.

Earlier this week three parties -- Ata Zhurt (Motherland), the Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan and Respublika -- formed a governing coalition after a previous three-party grouping had lasted just two days, failing to elect a speaker.

Three failed attempts to build a coalition and elect a speaker and prime minister would have forced interim leader Roza Otunbayeva to dissolve parliament and hold a new election. Keldibekov, 44, was elected as speaker by a 101-14 vote in the 120-seat legislature. He heads the faction of Ata Zhurt and ran the state tax committee under Bakiyev.


Agencies