A short summary of the key points of the president’s remarks is provided below. A full text (in Russian) is available here.

On Immediate Goals and Objectives for the Parliament

For the first time in Kyrgyz history, the Jogorku Kenesh will not be pressured by a party of power or the government.

Because none of the parties won a majority in the election, I will chose a party bloc to form a majority, nominate a prime minister, and draft a structure for a new government and its agenda within 15 working days. Securing a unanimous decision on such a complex issue will require considerable effort. Therefore, I am asking you to rise above political interests and personal ambitions, and to confirm a prime minister and a new government by November 27, in the name of the unity and interests of our people, your voters.

The new government should include highly educated professionals. The main criteria for government service should not be party affiliation, but professional qualities. The government should be staffed with people who have management experience, are well versed in economics, social and cultural spheres, including those without any party affiliation, as well as members of the parties that lost the elections.

On Political Future of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is at a historic threshold, entering a new phase of political development based on truly democratic values. Without any doubt, the country and its people are facing difficult and significant challenges. However, I am confident that we have chosen the right course.

Some politicians and political experts cast doubt on the people’s choice of parliamentary democracy. They believe that parliamentary democracy does not suit our country, and that the country needs a strong authority figure. However, more than 80 percent of the Kyrgyz electorate voted for the new constitution and parliamentary form of governance.

We must work tirelessly to instill a new political culture in Kyrgyzstan that would correspond with the new political strategy, supported by the people. A return to the past will unavoidably lead to totalitarianism and the reinstitution of a clan power.

It is time to end fruitless debates and focus all of our efforts on serious, practical goals. It is time to introduce the multifaceted modernization of the country, to use new technologies and to strengthen the basis of a new republic. These goals can only be achieved if they are based on democratic values and democratic institutions.

Kyrgyzstan is the first state in Central Asia, and in the Commonwealth of the Independent States, to introduce a parliamentary democracy. This is the beginning of a new political cycle in the development of our country.

On the Interim Government’s Record

The interim government had only three months – from April through July – to preserve the integrity of the Kyrgyz state, to return properties illegally seized from its people, and to implement a constitutional reform and end corruption.

The April revolution was followed by a period of political instability. A few attempts at coup-d’état were made with external support, resulting in bloodshed in the south of the country. The government had to counter external threats and to stabilize the internal situation.

The government reached its goals and objectives and fulfilled the Kyrgyz people’s requests. It reinstated previous prices for electric power, other communal services, and mobile communications. It nationalized 36 businesses, including power and communications companies. It undertook significant measures to ensure freedom of speech. It removed the National Television and Radio Corporation from government control, and it is now overseen by a Board of Observers. Corrupt government agencies, including the Kyrgyz Central Agency for Development, Investment and Innovation, were disbanded, political and civil activists were released from jail, family and clan powers were overthrown. The interim government prevented a banking and budget collapse in the country, and managed to preserve the sovereignty and integrity of the state, unity of our people, and our place in the international community.

And most importantly, the government has also done everything in its power to ensure that Kyrgyzstan held its first open, honest, transparent and democratic elections.

Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva is expected to address the new Jogorku Kenesh and to ask one of the five parties represented in the parliament to form a coalition. 

Traditionally, the oldest deputy member commences the first session of a new parliament. Tomorrow it will be Tashpolot Baltabayev of the Ata Meken Party. 

According to Baltabayev, the agenda for the first session includes forming parliamentary blocks, informing deputies of general goals for the fifth convocation of the Jogorku Kenesh, and assigning tasks for specific blocks, as well as negotiating a coalition. Once a coalition is formed, a new speaker of the parliament will be nominated and elected.

The ministry also encouraged the U.S. government to take all steps necessary to ensure the full transparency and disclosure of deals related to jet fuel supplies to the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, according to the ministry statement. The April uprising in Kyrgyzstan—which led to the fall of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s regime—uncovered fuel-supply schemes that enriched the president’s family at the expense of Kyrgyz taxpayers, the statement says.

Mina Corp. and its affiliate Red Star Enterprises have held contracts to supply the Manas air base with jet fuel since 2002. Mina Corp.’s dealings with the U.S. Department of Defense were investigated for six months by the House National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee. The panel sought to determine whether Mina and its affiliate had an established relationship with the former president’s family, and whether U.S. agencies, including the Pentagon, the Department of State, and the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, knew about it. No evidence of wrongdoing was found.

Still, the U.S. government is being asked to halt its dealings with the contractor until the prosecutor general of the Kyrgyz Republic completes its own investigation into past supply deals. 

The Kyrgyz government will also insist on entering into a formal intergovernmental agreement on jet fuel supplies to the Manas base, the statement concludes.

Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayev has previously voiced her opposition to Mina Corp. as a continued supplier of jet fuel, and offered a Kyrgyz-Russian joint venture as an alternative supplier of fuel for the Manas base.

After a three-week review process, the elections committee confirmed that five of the 29 Kyrgyz political parties won the October 10 election and will be seated in the parliament. Each party needed to win 5 percent of the national vote and 0.5 percent of the regional vote to be elected.

The five parties elected to the new Kyrgyz parliament with 1,101,958 votes represent only 35 percent of the Kyrgyz electorate, with 46 percent of Kyrgyz choosing not to participate in the election, and 19 percent of voters casting their ballots for other parties.

According to data released by the committee, the total number of eligible voters reached 3,036,703 people, including 2,837,989 names on registered voting lists and 198,714 names on additional lists. However, just half of eligible voters—1,679,710 people—cast ballots.

Other political parties, including Butun Kyrgyzstan, the first runner-up with 145,455 votes, failed to clear the 5 percent national threshold after it was raised from 142,000 votes to more than 150,000 votes when 200,000 additional voters showed up at the polls.

With none of the parties managing to secure 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a coalition of at least three parties is needed to form a ruling majority and establish a government. SDPK announced recently that it had reached a tentative agreement with the Respublica Party and was negotiating with the Ata Meken to form a coalition. Another likely coalition could consist of the Ar-Namys, the Ata Jurt, and the Respublica.

The Ar-Namys Party supports creating a wide parliamentary coalition and “a government of public trust,” Kulov said, adding that this political structure will allow for effective state governance. Under his proposal, the new government would be composed of representatives from eight or nine political parties, including those that lost the parliamentary elections, as well as the election winners. All parties should also be allowed to nominate candidates for the post of the prime minister.

Ensuring rapid reconstruction of the country’s south, its normal functioning during the harsh winter months, extermination of corruption, an independent judiciary, and stable relations with neighboring states must be the priorities of the new government, Kulov said.

Once seated in the new parliament, the Ar-Namy Party will also insist on strengthening presidential powers.

A parliamentary democracy was overwhelmingly approved by Kyrgyz voters in the June referendum, which also endorsed Roza Otunbayeva as interim president until December 31, 2011. Presidential elections were set for October 2011.

However, Kulov maintains that it is premature to introduce a parliamentary form of government in Kyrgyzstan, as Kyrgyz society lacks the highly developed political culture necessary to make parliamentary democracy effective.

Under Kulov’s proposal, the Kyrgyz president will be responsible for managing the country’s domestic and foreign policies, guaranteeing independence of the judiciary, and ensuring political stability in the event of a parliamentary coalition failure.

Leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) and the Respublica Party have already agreed to lay the foundation for a future coalition once the new Jogorku Kenesh is seated for its first session, the SDPK spokesman announced yesterday.

Several other former government officials have also been charged as accomplices, the news agency reported. They include former chairman of the military court of the Kyrgyz Republic Chubak Abyshkayev, former chairman of the National Security Service Bolot Djanuzakov, and former prosecutor general of the Jalalabad region Zootbek Kudaibergenov.   

Bakiyev, who currently lives in exile in Belarus, has been placed by Kyrgyzstan on the international most-wanted list. The Kyrgyz government has repeatedly asked Belarus to extradite Bakiyev, but the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has denied its requests.

Leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) and the Respublica Party have agreed to lay the foundation for a future coalition once the new Jogorku Kenesh is seated for its first session. The announcement came from Farid Niyazov, a representative of the SDPK and former spokesman for the Kyrgyz interim government.

Since the potential SDPK-Respublica coalition will not have enough seats in the parliament to form a majority, the support of a third party is needed. The SDPK is currently negotiating with the Ata Meken Party to join the coalition, although certain areas of disagreement remain, particularly on a number of foreign policy issues, Niyazov said.  

According to the preliminary election results published by the Kyrgyz Central Elections Committee, all three parties reached the threshold of 5 percent of the national vote necessary to win election to parliament. SDPK won 8.0 percent of the vote, Respublika received 7.2 percent, and Ata Meken took 5.6 percent.

Once the election committee announces the final election results, the first session of the new parliament must be seated within 15 days, according to the Kyrgyz election law. However, it is unclear when the results can be expected. Results have already been annulled for four polling stations in Russia due to gross violations of the elections process.  More challenges and annulments will come as the elections committee completes the verification process in the remaining regions of Jalalabad, Osh and the city of Bishkek.  

The protesters also blamed the government for allowing bloody ethnic clashes to occur in June in southern Kyrgyzstan, as well as for rising consumer prices and the deteriorating economy. 

The demonstration continues a wave of public discontent that started earlier this year and culminated in the April uprising in Bishkek, which led to the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. In the last nine months, more than 200 protests and public rallies have taken place in the Kyrgyz capital, according to the Bishkek mayor’s office. More than 17,000 people have participated in the events, organized by various political parties, NGOs, and other public associations, the mayor’s office said.

The Ar-Namys Party plans to join the protests by organizing a public demonstration of 5,000 supporters in Bishkek on October 27. Its supporters are expected to protest the country’s alleged destabilization caused by the delay in announcing the election results.

Almost two weeks after the elections took place, representatives of the country’s political parties are seemingly running out of patience. Ata Meken Party member Erkin Alymbekov warned a further delay in finalizing the election results would lead the country into chaos. Artur Medetbekov of the Social Democratic Party said the committee must act decisively to avoid another wave of instability. Toktaiym Umetalieva, leader of the Jashasyn Kyrgyzstan Party, called for the committee to be held criminally responsible for failing to announce the results two weeks after the October 10 elections.

In the meantime, the United Congress of Kyrgyzstan—an umbrella organization comprised of Kyrgyz political parties that failed to win election to parliament—have repeatedly demanded that the committee conduct an official recount, and have threatened to sue the committee if election results are announced without a recount.

President Roza Otunbayeva has called on the Kyrgyz political parties and the country’s citizens to allow the election committee to complete its work at its own pace to ensure the election’s winners are named accurately.

Supporters of the Butun Kyrgyzstan Party meanwhile have escalated their campaign to secure their party’s victory in the parliamentary election, which required each party to secure 5 percent of the national vote. After several days of public protests in Bishkek and other cities failed to achieve the desired results, twelve female voters began a hunger strike today to demand that the committee recognize the party’s 5 percent vote. (While the party passed the original 5 percent threshold established before the vote, the percentage increased when more voters than expected turned out on election day.) But the party leader, Adakhan Madumarov, spoke out against such drastic measures, saying that no political games were worth risks to individual health.

The committee began the verification process today, comparing ballots from various polling stations against the submitted results. The process will take approximately one week to complete. If serious differences in the results are discovered, the committee will consider conducting a recount of votes at affected polling stations.

It is unclear when the election results will be announced officially, as the Kyrgyz election law does not stipulate a specific cut-off date for compiling and announcing the results, Mikhail Korsunsky, a committee official said. 

In the meantime, public protests continued today, with protestors demanding that the government uphold the original 5 percent threshold of votes needed nationally for a party to win election to parliament. While the Butun Kyrgyzstan Party met the original threshold, it did not meet the new threshold after it was adjusted for an increase in voters on election day. Protestors demanded to speak to President Roza Otunbayeva about the change. The rhetoric escalated when Marat Kaiypov, a member of the Butun Kyrgyzstan Party and a former minister of justice, said the government should be replaced if it decides against the party’s interests.

Emil Kaptagayev, President Otunbayeva’s chief of staff, responded that Kyrgyzstan has survived four coup d’état attempts since the April uprising and called for an end of the country’s turmoil.