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Kyrgyz Leader To Meet Vote Observers

June 29, 2010

Kyrgyz interim leader Roza Otunbaeva will meet on June 29 with representatives of foreign observer missions after voters overwhelmingly backed a new constitution in a referendum.

More than 90 percent of voters approved the proposed constitution in a referendum on June 27. It will would pave the way for the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia and allow parliamentary elections planned for October.

However, opposition leaders said the figures were impossibly high given the fallout from this month's ethnic violence that left hundreds of people dead.

Meanwhile, the United States, United Nations, European Union, and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have praised Kyrgyzstan for having conducted a peaceful constitutional referendum.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the orderly manner of the referendum demonstrates that the Kyrgyz people want peace.

Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that the vote marks an "important step toward a re-establishment of the constitutional order and democratic process" in the country.

The interim government called the referendum after President Kurmanbek Bakiev was overthrown in April.

compiled from agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_Leader_Meets_ With_Observers_After_Vote_/2085483.html

Copyright (c) 2010. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.