At stake in this election:

• The office of President of Kyrgyzstan

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Kurmanbek BAKIEV
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Igor CHUDINOV
• Assembly: Kyrgyzstan has a unicameral Supreme Council (Jorgorku Kenesh) with 90 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• The Prime Minister is nominated by parliament.**
• In the Supreme Council (Jorgorku Kenesh) 90 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms.***

** The prime minister is nominated by the parliamentary party which holds more than 50% of the seats. The nomination must then be approved by the president. If no party holds more than 50% of seats, the president may select the party that will nominate a prime minister.

*** The electoral system is closed list PR. Parties must clear a threshold of five percent of registered voters nationwide. They they must clear a second threshold of 0.5 percent of all registered voters in each of the country's seven regions, plus the cities Bishkek and Osh.

** After the February 27th elections, the parliament will become a unicameral body with 75 seats.

Main Candidates in the Presidential race:

• Kurmanbek BAKIEV
  • Party: Ak Jol
• Toktayym UMETALIYEVA
  • Independent(s): N/A
• Almaz ATAMBAEV
  • Party: Social Democratic Party
• Temir SARIEV
  • Party: White Falcon / Ak-Shumkar
• Jenishbek NAZARALIEV
  • Independent(s): N/A
• Nurlan MOTUEV
  • Party: Joomart

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 5,383,300 (2009)
• Registered Voters: 2,670,530 (July 2005)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 2,728,176 (2009)

·         Is Kyrgyzstan a signatory to CEDAW: N/A

·         Has Kyrgyzstan ratified CEDAW: Yes, accession (10 February 1997)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 23 (following the 2007 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 120 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Medium (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Kyrgyzstan a signatory to CRPD: Yes (21 September 2011)

·         Has Kyrgyzstan ratified CRPD: No

·         Population with a disability: 807,495 (est.)