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Kyrgyzstan’s President-elect Almazbek Atambayev sworn in office

The inauguration ceremony was held on Thursday at the building of the national philharmonic society

BISHKEK, December 1 (Itar-Tass) —— Kyrgyzstan’s President-elect Almazbek Atambayev has been sworn in office. The inauguration ceremony was held on Thursday at the building of the national philharmonic society.

Atambayev won an overwhelming majority in the presidential elections of October 30. He scored 62 percent of the vote leaving all other 15 candidates far behind.

After swearing his oath, Atambayev took over a presidential certificate, a breastplate and the presidential colour.

A military parade is planned to be held in downtown Bishkek later in the day.

The new president is the leader of Kyrgyzstan’s oldest and most influential parties, the Social Democratic Party. It finished second in the last parliamentary elections and thus became a member of the ruling coalition, and its leader, Almazbek Atambayev, became the country’s prime minister. On Thursday, he will officially step down as prime minister and the parliament will again have to form a coalition to elect a new head of government.

The Social Democratic Party was among forces that forced Kyrgyzstan’s former presidents Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev to go, in March 2005 and April 2010 respectively.

Security measures have been tightened in Kyrgyzstan on the inauguration day. “The measures are being taken because of a big number of high-ranking guests who were invited to attend the ceremony,” police said. The list of guests includes presidents of Turkey and Georgia, prime ministers of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, parliamentary speakers from Uzbekistan, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and China. Russia is represented by co-chairman of the two countries’ cooperation commission, head of Russia’s Customs Service Andrei Belyaninov, head of department of the government staff Sergei Vinokurov, and by Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. International organizations are represented by Secretary General of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) Tair Mansurov, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Sergei Lebedev, and Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha.

Atambayev’s inauguration is the first peaceful transition of power in Kyrgyzstan’s history. Unlike ousted presidents Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Roza Otunbayeva, who had headed the country for 20 months, made no attempts to stay.