Parliament of Kyrgyzstan adopts bill to change state flag

The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan at its meeting considered and passed without discussion the bill on changing the state flag in three readings on Wednesday.

59 deputies voted for, 5 against.

Speaker of the Parliament Nurlanbek Shakiev congratulated the deputies on changing the flag. «Dear deputies! Congratulations on your new flag! This is not a change, these are corrections. There is no need to repeat all the time about the «legendary parliament». Each period has its own legend,» he said.

Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation, State Structure, Judicial, Legal Issues and Regulations Cholpon Sultanbekova said that six parliamentary factions gave their approval to vote on the bill in the second and third readings.

The idea to change the flag belongs to the President Sadyr Japarov. The initiators of the bill are Speaker of the Parliament Nurlanbek Shakiev and deputy Ulan Primov.

It is proposed to change the shape of the rays from wavy to straight. The authors of the document emphasize that changing the flag will not entail expenses from the republican budget.

At the People’s Kurultai last weekend, President Sadyr Japarov admitted that this was his idea. He asked the Speaker of Parliament to initiate the bill.

Chairman of the State Committee for National Security Kamchybek Tashiev also supported the change, saying: «The flag should not look like a sunflower, but give the image of a shining sun.»

Discussions about changing the flag continue to this day. Many people oppose it. A flash mob was launched on social media with the hashtag #don’tchangetheflag.