Kyrgyz parliament fails to reach quorum for sending peacekeepers to Kazakhstan

The meeting of the Kyrgyz parliament has been postponed until January 7.

The Kyrgyz parliament has been unable to reach the necessary quorum to consider the issue of sending peacekeepers to Kazakhstan, Qazet.az informs referring to Interfax.

“During today’s extraordinary meeting, the number of deputies necessary to consider the issue was not gathered,” said a spokesman for the press service.

He said that the meeting of the Kyrgyz parliament has been postponed until January 7.

On January 6, the Kyrgyz parliament during an extraordinary meeting behind closed doors was supposed to discuss the situation in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Earlier, the head of the Kyrgyz government, Akylbek Japarov, said that in accordance with the decision of the head of state and the CSTO Council, the country confirms its readiness to support Kazakhstan and, to the extent necessary, fulfil its allied commitments within the CSTO in connection with the appeal of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

According to the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan, permission to send the units of the country’s armed forces outside the territory of the republic is adopted by the parliament by a majority of at least two-thirds of the total number of deputies (there are 90 parliamentarians in total). Thus, to support the CSTO decision, at least 60 Kyrgyz deputies must vote ‘in favour.’