Five Kyrgyz parties have cleared the 5% barrier necessary to gain seats in the parliament after 50.02% of votes in Sunday's election were counted, the country's Central Election Commission said.
The list of the parties is topped by the nationalist Ata-Zhurt party with 8.91% of the vote and the Social Democratic Party (8.39%).
They are followed by the Ar-Namys party of former prime minister Felix Kulov with the 6.94% of the vote, the Respublika party, which has not sided with either the interim government or the opposition (6.85%) of the vote, and the pro-constitution Ata-Meken party (6.08%).
Twenty-nine parties competed in the election for seats in Kyrgyzstan's 120-member parliament, which will see its powers increase as part of constitutional changes approved in late June in a national referendum that confirmed Roza Otunbayeva as interim president following the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April.
Otunbayeva praised the elections in Kyrgyzstan, calling them as open and democratic.
"We have not seen such elections over the past 20 years. Today all the Kyrgyz people were able to vote without any pressure, dictatorship or gerrymandering for the parties they believe to be the strongest, just and capable of defending their interests in parliament," she said.
In order to gain seats in the parliament the parties have to overcome the 5% barrier and garner 0.5% of the vote in each region of the country.
BISHKEK, October 11 (RIA Novosti)
