The moderate prime minister of Kyrgyzstan claimed victory in the first round of the Central Asian state's presidential polls after half-stage results showed him holding 65 percent of the vote. Prime Minister Almazbek "Atambayev collected enough votes to win in the first round. We have about a million votes and this is sufficient for a first-round victory," an official in his campaign office told AFP.
Atambayev had 65.38 percent of the vote with 54.96 percent of the precincts reporting in the nation of 5.3 million, the central election commission said.
His two Kyrgyz nationalist rivals in the 16-candidate field - the former boxer Kachimbek Tashiyev and one-time parliament speaker Adakhan Madumarov - trailed with 14.05 and 13.48 of those polled, the election commission said. Atambayev had been hoping to avoid a runoff in the volatile republic's first presidential ballot since hundreds died in ethnic violence last year between ethnic Kyrgyz and the ex-Sovie state's large Uzbek minority.
Analysts had said that a unified nationalist vote in the runoff could pose a serious challenge to Atambayev and the ruling Kyrgyz government.