Bishkek, Nov 15 Acting President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov has stepped down to run for presidency in January 2021, his press service reported.
Zhaparov resigned on Saturday in connection with the nomination of his candidacy for the post of President, Xinhua news agency quoted the press service as saying in a statement.
Under current Kyrgyz law, anyone serving in an acting or interim capacity as president cannot run in an election for the post.
He submitted his documents to the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Saturday morning.
At the moment, 62 people have applied to run for the presidency, according to data of the CEC.
The election is scheduled for January 10, 2021.
Zhaparov first became prime minister in the midst of protests against the official results of parliamentary elections last month.
The demonstrations prompted authorities to cancel the results of the poll and sparked a political crisis that led to the resignation of the government and President Sooronbai Jeenbekov.
Jeenbekov was the third President in the Central Asian nation toppled by anti-government protests since 2005.
After Jeenbekov left office in October, Japarov, who during the protests had been released from prison where he was serving a sentence for kidnapping a political rival, was handed presidential powers as well.
( With inputs from IANS )
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