Almazbek Atambayev. Photo by Ferghana.Ru. See Ferghana.Ru Gallery for photos of other Kyrgyz politicians

President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a decree relieving acting Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev of his duties this morning. The president appraised Atambayev's performance as highly successful and decorated him for invaluable contribution to the socioeconomic development and ethnic harmony in society.

ITAR-TASS quoted its sources in the presidential press service as saying that Atambayev had resigned of his own volition.

Kyrgyz experts and analysts ascribe the series of staff shuffles in the upper echelons of state power to the forthcoming parliamentary election. Governors Iskenderbek Aidaraliyev (Jalalabad) and Jantoro Satybaldiyev (Osh) were sacked yesterday.

"Atambayev did not really belong. He had to go," ex-State Secretary Ishenbai Abdrazakov told 24.kg news agency. "Who will be chosen to fill the vacancy is anybody's guess. In the meantime, all state power is concentrated in the hands of the president at this point."

"Atambayev was sacked because he interfered with the powers-that-be and posed a threat from the standpoint of the forthcoming election," Edil Baisalov, Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, said. "So far as I know, Cabinet members and certain heads of local administrations were ordered to make sure that a certain political party poll 90% in the forthcoming election, but Atambayev was proving difficult to handle. I know as well that on at least several occasions he told the president in no uncertain terms that this willingness to end up with a parliament of a single house was dangerous. Who is going to like words like that?"

According to political scientist Mars Sariyev, acting prime minister's resignation shapes up a fairly interesting political configuration in Kyrgyzstan. "It occurred to Atambayev that his time was running out because the political party dominating the parliament would chose the head of the government now," Sariyev said. "He knew that the premiership interfered with his career as a politician and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan."