Parliamentary elections were held in Kyrgyzstan on 27 February and 13 March 2005. The belief that the elections had been rigged by the government led to widespread protests, culminating in the Tulip Revolution on 24 March in which President Askar Akayev was overthrown.
Background
A new constitution was introduced following a 2003 referendum, and provided for a unicameral 75-seat Supreme Council, replacing the bicameral Supreme Council which had consisted of the Assembly of People's Representatives and Legislative Assembly. MPs were elected from single-member constituencies using the two-round system, in which a candidate had to receive a majority of the vote in the first round to be elected, with a second round held if no candidate achieved a majority.
Conduct
Over 550 observers attended the elections. The Commonwealth of Independent States observers reported that the elections had been "fair and transparent", whilst the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated that the vote had failed to meet international standards. The OSCE highlighted unsealed ballot boxes and inaccuracies in voter rolls as some of the issues.