Some political parties running for the parliament in the campaign scheduled to end on December 16 had their lists of candidates registered - pro-president Ak Jol, acting Premier Almazbek Atambayev's Social Democratic Party, and Motherland (former Party of Poeple's Unity and Consent).

It should be noted that leaders of these parties failed to make top positions on the lists. Cholpon Bayekova of the Constitutional Court topped the list of Ak Jol. Social Democratic Party list of candidates is topped by Omurbek Babanov, former deputy of the parliament and opposition leader. Motherland, the party chaired by businessman Azamjan Akbarov, put ex-deputy Kadyrjan Batyrov on top of the list.

State Secretary Adahan Madumarov is number two on Ak Jol list of candidates. Indirectly at least, it confirms forecasts made by some political scientists that Madumarov might become the next chairman of the parliament. Once the lists of candidates are registered by the Central Electoral Commission, all state officials on the lists are supposed to step down.

Parties of the opposition - Ata-Meken led by ex-chairman of the parliament Omurbek Tekebayev and Ar-Namys led by ex-premier Felix Kulov (who established his United Opposition Front upon retirement from the government) - composed their lists of candidates too. These parties' lists are topped by their leaders.

Motherland arranged a convention in Jalalabad and adopted an appeal to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, political parties, and people of Kyrgyzstan (its text is available below). Supporting Bakiyev's policy in general, delegates of the convention called for a free and fair election without the use of dirty political technologies. The convention appealed to Bakiyev himself to "assure a free and fair election, without dividing political parties" into "us and them".

Delegates of the convention emphasized that certain circles in Kyrgyzstan tended to present Motherland as a party of ethnic Uzbeks promoting their own interests only. Denouncing the innuendo, authors of the appeal pointed out that the party objected to "division of the country into the north and the south, and division of the people by ethnic and other principles." Motherland condemned "the politicians and their assistants in the regions encouraging this ethnic or regional division in their campaigns."

Founded as the Party of People's Unity and Consent in 1999, the structure changed its name to Motherland in June 2007. Its Political Council boasts that total membership in the party exceeds 6,500 representatives of nearly 15 ethnic groups populating Kyrgyzstan.