Kyrgyzstan elections

Kyrgyzstan just had some elections for the new President of that country. They just threw out an old Soviet crony acting as dictator, Akayev. In an interesting twist, Akayev endorses one candidate, Bakiyev (so you know he's on the level, right?). Bakiyev turns around and joins with his main rival as President/Prime Minister. Suddenly, people don't have anyone else to vote for. Bakiyev wins with 90% of the vote.

The presidential race in Kyrgyzstan can be called an election without suspense because in the weeks before the vote, Bakiyev secured a deal with his main challenger Felix Kulov, former deputypresident, former security services chief and former acting Bishkek mayor, who agreed to give up the race on condition that hewould be made prime minister.

He ran on a "get the Americans out" platform. Not good, when we are getting pushed out of Uzbekistan too.
Laurence Jarvik isn't impressed.

Bottom line appears to be that now that the OSCE-monitored election is over, and the Westerners are heading home, Kulov and Bakiyev will fight for power between themselves in more traditional ways.