OSCE to help end legal dispute in Kyrgyzstan News
OSCE to help end legal dispute in Kyrgyzstan

[JURIST] Legal experts from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will join other high level OSCE officials already in Kyrgyzstan [JURIST report] early this week to attempt to resolve the country's current electoral crisis. Kyrgyzstan [DC embassy website] has been in a continuing state of unrest since contested elections in late February and the run-off elections in mid-March. The Kyrgyz Supreme Court annulled the election results Thursday [JURIST report] and said that the previous parliament retained power but on Sunday the Kyrgyz electoral commission backed the elected Parliament. OSCE officials will attempt to resolve the legal tangle of two parliaments claiming legitimacy in an effort to prevent violence from breaking out in the region. Read the OSCE press release. View a backgrounder on the electoral situation in Kyrgyzstan [Electionworld.org profile]. BBC News has more.

7:44 AM ET – The lower house of Kyrgyz's parliament from before the elections has announced that it will temporarily suspend its operations. The lower house said that it will cease all governmental operations in order to allow Interim President Kurmanbek Bakiev an easier situation to deal with. The lower house is not dissolving, however, and will remain in existance until the legal dispute concerning which parliament is legitimate is resolved. The upper house of the pre-election parliament has not yet commented on whether it will follow the same course. Reuters has more.