BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Newly elected Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov said he wanted to usher in an era of peace and stability to a country still dealing with ethnic disputes.
Legislatures in Kyrgyzstan elected Babanov from the Respublika party as the country's prime minister. The 41-year-old lawmaker said, "The nation wants to have more jobs, peace and stability," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
He was voted in by 113 members of the 120-seat Parliament. Only two members voted against him, the news agency reports.
An April 2010 coup led former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee to Belarus. Following the coup, at least 470 people were killed in ethnic conflicts near Osh and Jalal Abad.
The United Nations said that torture in the country was widespread and systemic. Juan Mendez, U.N. special envoy on torture, said it was common as a way to extract confessions from detainees by authorities working for the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs.
An audio recording between Babanov and Maxim Bakiyev, the former president's fugitive son, proved to be a fake after it surfaced on the Internet in June.
Babanov served as deputy prime minister during the first post-coup government.
