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It seems that the nationalist politician Sadr Jabarov is on his way to winning the presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, which are early elections held in light of the collapse of the previous government of this Central Asian country and a close ally of Russia.
The violent protests that erupted in late October led to the liberation of Jabarov, 52, from prison, his ascension to the prime ministerial seat, and then assuming the position of acting president, from whom he later resigned in order to run for a full-time position.
Jabbarov was sentenced to long prison terms for kidnapping a provincial governor as part of a protest, but that sentence was revoked during the unrest in October, and he managed to outpace his sixteen rivals by a large margin during his campaign.
Despite his nationalism, the first thing Jabarov did when he became prime minister was to add ethnic background to his identity card, and he pledged repeatedly to maintain a close relationship with Moscow.
“Russia is our strategic partner,” Jabbarov said after casting his vote in a suburb of the capital, Bishkek.
The prison sentence for Jabarov stems from his campaign in early 2010 to nationalize the giant Comtor gold mine that was run by Canadian company (Centera Gold). However, after coming to power last year, he said that was no longer his goal and that he would only seek to ensure that the mine’s profits were divided fairly.
According to local polls, Jabbarov is comfortably ahead of his rivals and could win more than 50 percent of the vote, which spares him a run-off.
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