Kyrgyzstan - November 2025

Kyrgyzstan held snap elections for the Jogorku Kenesh (parliament) on 30 November, with preliminary results showing allies of President Sadyr Japarov securing nearly all 90 electoral seats. As a result of a new electoral law passed in June which disadvantaged political parties due to an increase in the registration fee, most candidates were self-nominated individuals, making determining the precise balance of the incoming parliament difficult. The law also mandated that one of every three MPs in each of the 30 electoral districts be a woman, resulting in an increase to 30 from 18 women in the previous sitting. Voter turnout was 36.9 per cent, slightly up from 34.94 per cent in the 2021 elections. Turnout in both elections was well below the country’s historical average. Observers from the OSCE found the election to be efficiently run within a restrictive environment that fell short of international standards.

Sources: Reuters, Eurasianet, OSCE, Kaktus, International IDEA

Kyrgyzstan’s security services launched a crackdown on opposition politicians in the run-up to the 2025 snap parliamentary elections held on 30 November. Ten leading members of the opposition Social Democrats were arrested on 22 November on charges of planning to violently overthrow the government, and other high-profile political figures and their family members were also questioned for hours without legal counsel. The ten individuals, including Kadyrbek Atambayev, the son of former president Almazbek Atambayev, were sentenced to preventive detention and will remain in custody for the foreseeable future. While pre-election harassment of opposition is not unheard of in Kyrgyzstan, the scale of the arrests, the seriousness of the charges, and the dearth of evidence raise concerns of further shrinking of political space.

Sources: Times of Central Asia, Reuters 

A draft law approving Kyrgyzstan’s revocation of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was introduced to the Jogorku Kenesh (parliament) in November, beginning the legal process for the country to reintroduce the death penalty. The return of the death penalty has been broadly debated in Kyrgyzstan as a possible response to a rise in high-profile cases of rape and murder of women and children. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk called on Kyrgyzstan in October 2025 to stop all efforts to reintroduce capital punishment, and he and other legal experts say any attempt to do so would breach international law. President Sadyr Japarov has made statements indicating he is in favour of the process. Should Kyrgyzstan withdraw from the Protocol, it would first have to amend its constitution, which also bans capital punishment, in order to reintroduce it. 

Sources: 24.kg, Verfassungblog, OHCHR