I knew that the parliament had declined new election for June 26 as set by the old parliament, but I didn’t know that they’d set a new date. In any case, it’s not the much further away from the old date.

Legislators initially hesitated in accepting his offer to step down, reluctant to allow him a dignified exit. After days of debate, they deepened his disgrace by stripping him of privileges he had gained as the Central Asian nation’s first president under a 2003 law.

Yesterday, legislators in the 75-seat parliament voted, 38 to 2, to ”suspend Askar Akayev’s presidential powers in connection with his offer of resignation.” Three of the 60 lawmakers present formally abstained; the others did not vote.

Parliament also set July 10 as the date for presidential elections in this former Soviet republic. Last week, it canceled a decision made by the previous parliament to hold the vote June 26.

That’s good. I was waiting to see how anxious the new lawmakers were to hold on to power. Here’s a statement by the acting foreign minister.

MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti) – Kyrgyzstan is feeling like taking an exam before the international community, Kyrgyz acting foreign minister Roza Otunbaeva told the press conference in Moscow.

“We are sitting an examination of the international community”, she said. She explained that Kyrgyzstan is going to conduct an honest presidential election (set for July 10) and demonstrate that the country is developing along the lines of the law and building a democratic state. “Our people demand restoration of justice”, Otunbaeva said.

Of course, before making any post on Central Asia, it is imperative to check out Registan.net. Nathan links to a piece by Martha Brill Olcott at the Carnegie endowment, looking at the next act in the drama.

For the last 15 years, the leaders of all the Central Asian states have been warning the West that their populations were not ready for democracy and that without the guidance of strong authority figures, the situation would degenerate into mob rule. But the mob in Kyrgyzstan was easily quelled with promises that new office-holders would take their public trust more seriously than their predecessors. But if the Kyrgyz elite degenerate into “business as usual, Central Asian-style,” the hope for democratic reform in the region more generally will be dashed. And if the Kyrgyz masses were to take to the streets once more — in a year or two, or even sooner — it is unlikely that their protests would be broken up without the use of force and without considerable bloodshed.

The Kyrgyz elite have the fate of their nation in their hands. Now that all the major factions in the Kyrgyz elite — save Akayev and his most intimate associates — have been brought into the interim government, it is time for the elite to appease the masses. The now largely united elite should be capable of holding transparent elections and agreeing to accept their results. And then, once Akayev’s successor is chosen by the population, he — or she — should preside over a national debate about what constitutional reforms are necessary to create a political system that will keep public trust high throughout Kyrgyzstan’s inevitably lingering economic transition. If the Kyrgyz can do this, they will keep the pressure on the presidents of neighboring states to make their regimes more accountable to their populations. The first to feel the pressure will be Nursultan Nazarbayev in neighboring Kazakhstan.

I’ve had my misgivings with the opposition. But we really shouldn’t be penning this on one candidate to the next. The most important thing is that they really do conduct free elections. As long as this is possible, then anything is.