Kyrgyzstan president says ready to resign once new cabinet appointed

ALMATY (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov said on Friday he was ready to resign once a new cabinet was appointed to end the power vacuum in the Central Asian nation gripped by unrest since opposition supporters seized government buildings on Tuesday.

While his offer, made in a statement, could facilitate the transfer of power later, it may do little to resolve the political impasse, which prompted regional power Russia to describe Kyrgyzstan’s situation as chaos.

After forcing the cabinet to resign and the election commission to annul the results of Sunday’s parliamentary election that triggered the protests, opposition groups have so far failed to agree on who would lead a provisional government.

The former Soviet republic’s outgoing parliament has also not convened or appointed one of at least three interim premier candidates, with some MPs saying they feared for their safety.

Two political parties close to Jeenbekov swept Sunday’s parliamentary vote, but at least 11 other parties refused to accept the results and Western observers said the election was marred by credible evidence of vote-buying.

The nation of 6.5 million which borders China and hosts a Russian military air base and a large Canadian-owned mining operation. Despite the state of uncertainty, with no legitimate leadership, veteran officials appeared to be in control of its security forces.