BISHKEK, October 22 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has decreed to dissolve parliament after a 75% referendum vote in favor of electing parliament on a party basis, the presidential press service said.
Kyrgyzstan voted on Sunday in a referendum on a new Constitution intended to strengthen the president's power and end a long-lasting political crisis in the Central Asian republic.
The president accused parliament of creating "irreconcilable difficulties" with the Constitutional Court.
The republic's parliament adopted in September resolutions on a vote of no-confidence in the Constitutional Court, and also formed a parliamentary commission to study the Court's activity from 1993 onwards.
As a result, the country currently lacks a legitimate parliament and government. The acting government has been instructed to "enhance the provision of law and order and the protection of the people's rights and freedoms."
Gulya Ryskulova, from the country's Central Election Commission, said on Monday that the new Constitution would come into effect within the next two weeks.
"According to the law, the new Kyrgyz Constitution will come into effect on the day of the publication of the referendum results," she said, adding that the Cabinet would have to subsequently resign.
MP Rashid Tagayev, one of initiators of the voluntary dissolution of parliament, announced that "all members of the Meken bloc are ready to cede their mandates." The Meken parliamentary group consists of 12 parliamentarians.
"As soon as the Constitution comes into effect, I will call the date of parliamentary elections," President Bakiyev said, live on national TV. "These will be direct and fair elections. The country will receive parliamentarians elected for their ideas, not for their money."
Kyrgyzstan's main law was adopted by a national referendum in 2003 and amended twice in 2006.
