DUSHANBE, July 25, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has congratulated incumbent Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev over a landslide victory in Kyrgyzstan vote.

Friday evening, Rahmon had a telephone conversation with Bakiyev and congratulated him over his reelection as President of Kyrgyzstan and wished him further success, according to presidential press service.

The leaders of the two countries discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as well as international and regional issues being of mutual interest.  

According to INTERFAX.RU, Kyrgyzstan’s central election commission said that 2.310 million people participated in voting on July 23 and turnout was 79.38 percent.  Kurmanbek Bakiyev won 88.9 percent of the vote, while the main opposition challenger, Almazbek Atambayev, had just 6.29 percent.  The remaining four candidates had less than 2 percent.  Apart from Bakiyev and Atambayev, four more candidates ran for presidency in Kyrgyzstan: Toktaiym Umetaliyeva (chairwoman of the Association of Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations); physician Jenishbek Nazaraliyev; Tamir Sariyev; and Nurlan Motuyev, the leader of the People’s Patriotic Movement Zhoomart.   

In the meantime, Almazbek Atambayev denounced the election as rigged, while Bakiyev denied widespread fraud and said that any irregularities would be of the type encountered in any election in any country and would not affect the outcome.