The Kyrgyz government of Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov has formally resigned after President Almazbek Atambayev's party quit the ruling majority coalition earlier this week.
Kyrgyz president’s official website says President Almazbek Atambayev signed on Wednesday a decree on the resignation of the country’s government on October 26.
The prime minister, the first deputy prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, other government members and heads of administrative bodies will continue implementing their duties until the new government is approved, the decree said.
Atambayev's Social Democratic Party (SDP) announced on October 24 that it is leaving the six-party ruling coalition.
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, the coalition was formed on November 2, 2015 between the factions of the Social-Democratic Party, the Kyrgyzstan party, Onuguu-Progress and Ata-Meken.
The SDP, which controls the largest faction in parliament, left the coalition because it rejects proposed constitutional reforms on expanded powers for the prime minister and parliament advocated by three other parties.
Reuters reports that the proposed changes would strengthen the powers of the prime minister, a role which Atambayev could in theory take after stepping down as president next year, although he said in August he had no such plan.
Kyrgyzstan's current constitution was adopted in June 2010 after mass protests toppled then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. A clause in the 2010 constitution reportedly prohibits making amendments to the text before 2020.
One member of the ruling coalition, the Ata Meken party, has opposed the reform and party leader Omurbek Tekebayev has become one of its most vocal critics, arguing that the change would give the prime minister too much power.
Atambayev must now ask a parliamentary party to form a new coalition.
Reuters notes that if the confrontation between Atambayev and his opponents extends beyond a war of words and parliamentary maneuvering, it could destabilize the country which hosts a Russian military base.
