Kyrgyz presidential elections kick off

BISHKEK - Voting for the presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan kicked off early morning on Sunday.

The Central Election Commission said about 3 million citizens will be eligible to vote for their future leader at 2,375 polling stations, including 37 outside the country.

A total of 11 presidential candidates are competing for the presidency after two of 13 registered candidates withdrew from the pre-election race.

The voting began at 8:00 am local time (0200 GMT) and will end at 8:00 pm local time (1400 GMT). After that, preliminary results will be summed up.

About 800 international observers from 58 countries and 46 international organizations will oversee the voting.

According to the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan, the country's president is elected for a six-year term and will not be allowed to run for re-election. Incumbent President Almazbek Atambayev's term will end on Dec 1.

Kyrgyzstan's ex-deputy to parliament Kazybek Shayimbetov was detained for preparing riots to disturb presidential elections, the press service of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) reported Sunday.

The ex-deputy and his supporters were accused of spending the last few days actively searching for weapons and ammunition for them to participate in mass riots and seizure of the administrative buildings of state bodies in Kyrgyzstan, said a statement released by the GKNB.

Earlier this month, the security services detained a deputy to parliament, Kanatbek Isayev, leader of the political party "Kyrgyzstan", and Melis Aspekov, a member of the political party "Mekenchil" for alleged seizure of power in the elections.