More than 20 candidates will vie for the presidency of Kyrgyzstan in an election on Oct. 30 that marks the final stage of reforms intended to turn the former Soviet republic of 5.5 million into Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy.

But in burned-out neighborhoods of Osh, where many homes bear the scars of the mob violence that killed more than 400 people in June 2010, many residents have no appetite for the vote.

“The most important thing is to rebuild my home. Elections come second,” said Mirzokhid Mukhtarov, 38, an unemployed father of three in the Cheryomushki district of Osh, one of the worst affected by the riots.

Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim state that hosts US and Russian military air bases, has rejected nearly two decades of authoritarian rule in building a parliamentary democracy run by a coalition government.

The election will be a key test for the system as it will be contested by the prime minister, Almazbek Atambayev, as well as outspoken opponents of the current model of government.

By pitting candidates from the more industrial and Russified north of the country against nationalists from the impoverished south, the vote could also deepen a divide between the regions.

Central government has tenuous control of the country’s south and northerners are often unpopular in a region comprising part of the Ferghana Valley, where radical Islam is on the rise.

The main candidates, while holding divergent political views, have appealed for unity. A billboard in support of Atambayev’s campaign declares: “Together we are one Kyrgyzstan!”

The issue of identity is most complex in the south, where the population is split roughly equally between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. Osh and the surrounding region was the scene of the fierce battles between the two communities in June last year.

“I won’t be going to the polls, because nothing depends on me. I’m leaving this place,” said Alisher Suleimanov, 35, an ethnic Uzbek teacher in Osh. “Many people feel the same. I have no hope for anything.”

Western human rights bodies have warned that the failure of Kyrgyzstan’s government to punish those responsible for the 2010 killings heightens the risk of renewed violence. Both Kyrgyz and Uzbeks say they suffered losses.

Construction materials and piles of sand lie outside many Uzbek homes in the Cheryomushki neighborhood, where charred walls and the gaping windows of teahouses overshadow campaign posters for election hopefuls.

“What’s the sense in voting? It has all been decided for us and nothing will change,” said another Uzbek resident, who declined to give his name. “Show me another country with so many candidates.”
 

Other residents of Osh said they were baffled by the lengthy list of presidential contenders. With a clear majority of the vote needed to win, most analysts forecast a run-off between the two leading candidates after the first round.

Ethnic Kyrgyz Zamirbek Khodzhayev, a 48-year-old lawyer, said he was stumped by the wide choice of hopefuls.

“I haven’t yet seen an obvious leader whose program would suit everyone,” he said. “Everyone has the smell of something indecent.”

Atambayev’s main challenge is expected to come from two nationalist candidates popular in their native south, Kamchibek Tashiyev and Adakhan Madumarov.

Tashiyev, campaigning under the slogan ‘Law and order are the foundation for development’, is a member of the Ata Zhurt (Motherland) party, which finished first in the parliamentary election and is strongly opposed to the constitutional reforms.

Madumarov, who heads the Butun Kyrgyzstan (United Kyrgyzstan) party, drew a crowd of nearly 5,000 to the central square in Osh when he gave his first election speech on Oct. 7.

“Madumarov is from my region. He is a good and honest person. Osh, Jalalabad, everyone will vote for Madumarov,” said Rustam, 25, an ethnic Kyrgyz worker in a local brick factory. He declined to give his second name.

Zhamshid Mamytov, who works in Madumarov’s election team, said voter apathy could be explained by fatigue after the many changes through which Kyrgyzstan has passed in the last 18 months. But he forecast that interest would pick up.

“Elections gather pace,” he said. “We always wake up three days before the election.”