Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva announced on Monday that she would not participate in presidential elections in the fall of 2011, the news agency 24.kg said.
Otunbayeva came to power amid large-scale opposition protests that swept the Central Asian republic last April. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted from power and fled the country, taking refuge in Belarus.
In June, Kyrgyzstan held a referendum that turned it from a presidential to a parliamentary republic. Otunbayeva was approved as the country's president for a transitional period until 2012 in the referendum.
In October, a new parliament was elected in Kyrgyzstan, and Almazbek Atambayev, who was also served as prime minister under Bakiyev in 2007, was appointed the new prime minister.
"I am grateful to everyone who proposed during the meeting to extend my term as the head of state. But all of us should be equal under the law, and I'm not going to stand in the upcoming elections,” Otunbayeva said during a visit to the Narynsk region.
“We need to demonstrate a peaceful transfer of power within the law, as was decided in the referendum of June 27, 2010,” she added.
MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti)
