“Akayev right now is not on Kyrgyz soil,” Bakiyev confirmed. (Reuters)

BISHKEK/MOSCOW, March 24, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The parliament of the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan named an opposition lawmaker as interim president and asked the opposition to propose candidates for a new government.

“A decision has been made today with 44 votes for and two abstentions to name Ishinbai Kadyrbekov the new parliamentary speaker and acting president,” former speaker Abdygany Erkebayev told reporters during a break in a parliamentary session, reported Reuters.

The legislature also asked the coordination council, headed by prominent opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiev, to name candidates for a new government.

“We decided to request that the coordination council of the opposition forces work out and present by 10 a.m. (0500 GMT) tomorrow (Friday) candidates for the new government of Kyrgyzstan,” Erkebayev said.

The political tension has flared up in the majority-Muslim republic after massive demonstrations by the opposition, mostly in the south of the country, to protest results of the March 13 parliamentary elections.

The opposition charged that the vote was rigged by Akayev's administration in order to pack the assembly with his supporters ahead of presidential elections in October.

The opposition's presence in the 75-member parliament was nearly wiped out, while his older daughter and son both won seats.

Vanished

A Kyrgyz man walks outside the government building in central Bishkek. (Reuters)

Kyrgyzstan's veteran leader Askar Akayev, a 60-year-old physicist by training, fled the impoverished mountainous country that he has ruled for nearly 15 years.

“Akayev right now is not on Kyrgyz soil,” Bakiyev said on television, confirming earlier reports.

The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), whose envoy was initially reported to have been in talks with Akayev, also said it did not know his whereabouts.

Interfax reported, without naming its sources, that he had flown to Kazakhstan by helicopter with his family.

Bakiyev added that Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev also resigned, and the Supreme Court announced that it had annulled results of the parliamentary election on March 13 which had sparked the escalating opposition protests.

Amid unprecedented scenes, the protesters also freed Felix Kulov, a former vice president jailed in 2000 and who many now believe will become the leader of the fractious opposition.

Kulov, who was jailed on corruption charges which many people suspect were politically motivated, had called earlier on Akayev to resign and appealed for calm.

“Let's keep the peace, let's not lose our head,” he said into a megaphone, addressing some 4,000 people.

“I want to thank you that you weren't afraid and were peaceful and civilized.”

White House Seized

The parliament’s emergency session was called after opposition crowds stormed the White House compound housing the government and presidency and took control of the main television station.

Hundreds of opposition supporters had flooded the nation’s seat of government as riot police abandoned their posts around the compound in the center of the capital.

The protestors, many waving wooden clubs, ran past the tall wrought-iron fence surrounding the White House and went inside.

Clashes also broke out in the Kyrgyz capital between Akayev and opposition supporters.