(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-16 15:53

ALMATY - Kyrgyz voters went to polls on Sunday in early parliamentary elections, according to news reports from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

Pedestrians walk past the electoral posters in downtown Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Friday, Dec. 14, 2007. Kyrgyzstan elects a new parliament Sunday in an early vote called by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who is seeking a friendlier legislature after two years of struggling with defiant lawmakers. [Agencies]

Some 2.7 million voters would go to 2,242 polling stations across the country from 8:00 am (0200 GMT) to 8:00 pm (1400 GMT), and about 30,000 voters would also cast their ballots overseas, said the Central Election Commission.

The vote came after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev dissolved the parliament and called for early elections on October 22.

More than 600 international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States would monitor the voting. Over 3,000 domestic observers would also join in the surveillance force.

According to the commission, 12 parties have registered to run for 90 parliamentary seats, including the Ak Zhol Party, established by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier this year, and such oppositions as the Ata-Meken Socialist Party, the Ar-Namys Party and the Social Democratic Party.

Bakiyev said earlier he hoped the new parliament would help the government press ahead with stalled economic reforms.

By law, all deputies should be elected through party-list proportional representation and will serve for a five-year term. Parties have to pass a 5-percent overall barrier and separately win at least 0.5 percent of the votes in each of Kyrgyzstan's seven regions and two key cities, Bishkek and the southern city of Osh.