83 candidates register for Kyrgyz presidential election

By Tuesdays deadline, the 83 registered candidates for the October 30 election included more than a dozen unemployed, a shepherd born in 1942 and current Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev.The election is considered critical for Kyrgyzstan which is trying to rebuild after a revolution last year, its second since 2005, and ethnic violence that killed more than 400 people. Analysts worry that instability in Kyrgyzstan, a poor, mountainous state at the heart of former Soviet Central Asia, could spread through the region.The world is watching to see if we can peacefully transfer power like a civilized state, said Emil Kaptagayev, head of the presidential administration.Roza Otunbayeva took over as interim president after the revolution in April 2010. She agreed not to stand in this years election, an unprecedented decision in Central Asias 20 year post-Soviet history.The election itself is also virtually unprecedented because this is the first presidential election under a new constitution that shifted power away from the president towards parliament and also because it is perhaps the first presidential election in Central Asia where the result is genuinely unknown.