BISHKEK - One of the leading candidates in Kyrgyzstan's July 10 presidential elections has withdrawn from the race in a deal announced Friday by interim leader and presidential candidate Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
"We have signed an agreement with Felix Kulov in which he withdraws as a candidate in the presidential election and commits, if I win, to take the post of prime minister," said Bakiyev, who is the country's interim president and prime minister.
The election date was set after the March 24 ousting of the country's first post-Soviet leader Askar Akayev in a popular uprising.
Former security chief and Bishkek mayor Kulov declared he was running for the presidency April 25 and was immediately seen as the most potent challenger to the new administration.
Bakiyev has promised the presidential vote will be free and fair, and to make constitutional changes to give more powers to parliament should he win.
Kulov had been calling for very limited presidential powers and had wanted the constitution reformed before the election.
05/13/2005 15:11 GMT