Bakyt Torobayev

Originally a political movement, Onuguu–Progress held its first congress on 1 February 2012, and it was formally registered as a party sixteen days later. At its second congress, on 23 April 2015, it elected Torobayev as its leader.[1] The party first stood candidates in the 2015 parliamentary election, winning 13 of the 120 seats in the Supreme Council, coming fourth.[6]

As leader of the party, Torobayev supports the strengthening of Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary democracy and transfer of more powers from the office of the president to the office of the prime minister, while at the same time stating that "[continued discussion of whether to have a presidential or parliamentary system has] really tired people with [such] business." He has placed himself and the party under a "centrist" and "neoconservative" label, supporting property rights, a market economy and more political competition.[8]

On 10 February 2017, Torobayev confirmed that he was running in the 2017 presidential elections;[9] on 27 June delegates from his own party unanimously confirmed that he was running under the Onuguu–Progress name.[10]

After his confirmation, he tried twice to broker deals with other parties and politicians; the first in August when Torobayev announced that Onuguu–Progress would merge with two other parties, Mekenim-Kyrgyzstan and Respublika–Ata Zhurt, in an attempt to receive a better electoral vote,[11] and to allow all three party leaders a government post if their candidate were to be elected president.[12] On 4 September he announced that a conference would be held a week later to formally announce the presidential candidate of the new party,[13][14] named as "Kaira Zharaluy",[15] but the merger failed, as Respubika–Ata Zhurt chairman Kamchybek Tashiyev decided to support the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan for the elections.[15] Six days later Torobayev joined up with Omurbek Babanov, agreeing that should Babanov win, he would become prime minister.[12] Initially one of the thirteen registered candidates,[16] Torobayev eventually withdrew from the race on 6 October.[17]

Torobayev's campaign was based upon the creation of a "dictatorship of law", where he would promote creation of jobs, especially for young people, and making sure that citizens feel "legally and socially" protected, an attempt to appeal to the city-dwelling entrepreneurial class and also to the burgeoning traditionalist electorate.[8] He did not take up his 15-minute airtime slot on OTRK, Kyrgyzstan's national broadcaster, after the station accused his supporters of bribing voters.[18]

From the fallout of Babanov failing to secure the presidency, three deputies from his party attempted to launch a leadership challenge against Torobayev; an internal vote subsequently expelled them from the party, and the newspaper Vecherny Bishkek, described by analysis site EurasiaNet as a 'privately owned government mouthpiece', made comments about how Torobayev may "lose control [...] over the Onuguu-Progress faction".[19]