Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva has set parliamentary elections in the country for October 10, the Kyrgyz government said on Tuesday.
"The head of [Kyrgyz] state Roza Otunbayeva signed a relevant decree late on Monday and it came into force," the government's information center said in a statement.
The elections will be held in accordance with a new Constitution, which was adopted after a national referendum in late June.
The majority of voters approved changes to the constitution that reduce the president's powers and make Kyrgyzstan a parliamentary republic.
The new parliament will have 120 seats, but the winning party could not have more than 65 seats. It would be able to form a new Cabinet, though.
The official announcement of the election date comes shortly after the Kyrgyz interim government lifted the state of emergency and curfew declared in southern Kyrgyzstan two months ago amid interethnic violence.
Fighting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the city of Osh and surrounding areas killed some 300 people, according to official estimates, with the unofficial death toll topping 2,000.
Otunbayeva earlier said the general election campaign could be hampered by an open conflict in the south of the former Soviet republic, by the division of the elite on the southern and northern, and by the interference of the former leadership into Kyrgyzstan's internal affairs.
The Kyrgyz interim government came to power in April amid large-scale opposition protests that overthrew former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Bakiyev fled the country and has taken refuge in Belarus.
BISHKEK, August 10 (RIA Novosti)
