FOCUS Information Agency Kyrgyzstan's main opposition candidate on Thursday demanded a presidential election be declared illegal as polling was under way, denouncing what he called voter fraud and calling for street protests and a rerun, Reuters reported.Police earlier fired in the air and used batons to break up an opposition rally in a small provincial town in the ex-Soviet nation, home to U.S. and Russian military bases, but another rally in the capital dispersed quietly after polls closed.
The abrupt turn of events in Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Muslim state at the center of U.S.-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, will be of concern to the United States, which uses it as a transit point for its troops fighting in nearby Afghanistan.
Incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev, accused by critics of cracking down on dissent, is certain to win the vote. Authorities said they had done their utmost to make the poll fair and the election was valid, but the opposition cried foul.
