Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats Under Pressure

Ten years ago, the country’s Social Democrats were riding high.

By Catherine Putz January 14, 2025 Credit: Kyrgyz Presidential Administration

Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats are being subjected to “political terror,” prominent party member Kadyr Atambayev said in a Facebook post after learning that fellow member Zhanna Samysheva had been detained on January 12 in a Bishkek cafe.

The next day, Atambayev – son of former President Almazbek Atambayev – reported that another Social Democrat had been detained: Anarbek Kataganov.

According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Radio Azattyk, Samysheva’s lawyer said on January 13 that their client had been questioned as a witness in a criminal case related to vote-buying and had been related.

The Social Democrats’ leader Temirlan Sultanbekov, and two other members, Irina Karamushkina and Roza Turksever, were arrested on November 13, suspected of a vote-buying scheme. The case stemmed from a clip of leaked audio of a conversation allegedly between Karamushkina and a candidate in which they appear to discuss buying votes. Party members contest that the two were talking about paying the salaries of campaigners. 

Nevertheless, the party was rapidly disqualified from participating in the Bishkek City Council elections held on November 17. 

The detentions of Sultanbekov, Karamushkina, and Turksever were extended on January 9 until February 13. Sultanbekov has been on a hunger strike for more than 50 days, with supporters and medical professionals expressing grave concern for his health.

Kyrgyzstan is due for a parliamentary election in 2025; a date has not been set.

The country’s last parliamentary election took place in late November 2021, more than a year after the October 2020 parliamentary election touched off the country’s third revolution – and brought Sadyr Japarov to power. The events of 2020 upended Kyrgyz politics once again, with Japarov spearheading a referendum that swung the country back toward a presidential system after its decade dalliance with parliamentarism, followed by a constitutional re-write. 

Ten years ago, Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats were riding high. The Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) held 38 seats in the country’s parliament after the 2015 election. It was far from a majority in then then-120 seat body, but the SDPK had a plurality. And the party’s founder, Almazbek Atamabyev, was president.

The party fractured after Atamabyev’s presidency, with one faction supporting Atambayev and another that followed his successor, Sooronbay Jeenbekov. Their in-fighting tipped Kyrgyzstan toward another cycle of political chaos, which came to a head in the October 2020 election and its messy aftermath. 

In the 2021 election, the Social Democrats – the pro-Atambayev faction that had been formed in 2019 – ran Kadyr Atambayev as their lead candidate. The party won just one seat in the body, which had been trimmed down in the constitutional referendum to 90 seats.

With an election due sometime this year, the criminal case against the Social Democrats’ leadership and the snatching up of party members takes on a darker tone.