BISHKEK. June 22 (Interfax) - The leaders of influential political parties in Kyrgyzstan have called on the interim government to cancel the June 27 referendum on the republic's new draft constitution.
"Generally speaking, I am not opposed to the idea of holding a referendum on the new draft constitution, but, given the situation in Kyrgyzstan today, holding a nationwide vote would be simply immoral," Kyrgyzstan's Communist Party leader Iskhak Masaliyev told Interfax on Tuesday.
The state of emergency remains in force in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in the south of Kyrgyzstan, where the recent ethnic clashes claimed 214 lives, according to official reports.
"It is necessary to look for forms and ways to legitimatize the authorities through parliament," Masaliyev said.
For his part, Akhmatbet Keldibekov, a leader of Ata-Zhurt (The Fatherland), one of the most influential parties in southern Kyrgyzstan, told Interfax that Ata-Zhurt "is opposed to holding a constitutional referendum after such an enormous tragedy hit the country."
"The referendum on the constitution should be postponed, or it should address only one issue - the election of Roza Otunbayeva as Kyrgyzstan's acting president for the next year and a half," Keldibekov said.
Omurbek Tekebayev, deputy head of Kyrgyzstan's interim government and chairman of the Constitutional Assembly, told Interfax on Monday evening that "the constitutional referendum will be held on the set date and will not be postponed."