Kyrgyzstan's Pres tells parties to stop dividing country

According to the presidential press service, Otunbayeva said this Monday during a trip to the country's southern Osh region, which saw the scenes of bitter inter-ethnic violence earlier this year.

"I'd like to stress the toughness of measures that will be taken against the parties, which will take the liberty of playing up the ethnic problem and dividing the nation into 'northerners' and 'southerners' or into tribes and clans in a bid to gain more political scores," the Interim President said.

She promised that the incumbent authorities will do everything in their power to make for upcoming parliamentary election "decent, transparent and fair to the maximum."

"We're creating equitable conditions for all the participants in the election procedures," Otunbayeva said.

The national Central Electoral Commission says a total of 29 political parties have registered for the October 10 election. They submitted all the required documents on time.

A pre-election campaign started off in Kyrgyzstan as of last Saturday. It will wind up a day before the opening of polling stations.

The new parliament is due to have 120 members.