Kyrgyzstan

Official name: 
Kyrgyz Republic
Name in local language: 
Kyrgyz Respublikasy / Kirgizskaya respublika
Form of government: 
Republic
Political system: 
Semi-presidential
  • Founding date/ Date of independence: December 1991
  • Date of constitution/reform: 1993 - the constitution has been reformed several times; the last reform was approved by referendum on 27th June 2010.  Following this reform the Kyrgyz Republic is the first Central Asian state with a semi-presidential system of government.
  • Form of state: Unitary
  • Administrative divisions: Seven regions and two autonomous cities
  • Official language(s):  Kyrgyz (state language), Russian (official language). 
  • Other spoken languages: Uzbek, Tajik, Ukrainian or Dungan are spoken by their respective minorities. 
  • Official religion: Secular
  • Minorities: The nation's largest ethnic group are the Kyrgyz who comprise 69% of the population.  Other minorities groups are Uzbeks (14,5%), Russians (9%), Tatars (1´9%), Uighurs (1,1%), Tajiks (1,1%), Kazakhs (0,7%), Ukrainians (0,5%), and others groups which gather 1.7%, among them the Dungans, Koreans or Meskhet-Turks
  • Dominant actor(s): Informal networks are determinant to negotiate the distribution of key executive posts, to control the political and economic arenas in a given area, or to manipulate elections in favour of allies. Local informal networks are not corporate groups and reveal a growing leading role for the new business elite to the detriment of government officials. Networks are flexible in composition and decision-making is organized into a strict hierarchy.
  • Elected institutions of government: President, Parliament (Jogorku Kenesh) and local governments and parliaments
  • Non-elected  institutions of government: Regional Governors
  • Party system: Kyrgyzstan has a multi-party system that can be considered both "floating" given the huge variations between the main parties from one election to the next, and "fragmented" in view of the high level of dispersion of votes and seats among parties. It is also a clientelist party system. The parties are hierarchical and personalistic, and the majority depend on rich business men. Although there are some differences, the interests they channel are mostly private or, are linked with informal networks with local rather than regional bases.

Current authorities

  • Head of state: Sooronbai Zheenbekov, replaced Almazbek Atambayev on November 2017.
  • Head of government: Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev
  • Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abdyldaev Erlan Bekeshovich
  • Minister of Interior: Ulan Israilov
  • Head(s) of Legislative Branch: Asilbek Jeenbekov
  • Composition legislative branch: Link to picture
  • Head of the Judiciary:
  • Schematic representation of the political system: Link to PDF

Links