Kyrgyzstan held a referendum today to try to create Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy, with more than half of voters turning out despite political turmoil and ethnic bloodshed.
At least 283 people were killed this month - and possibly hundreds more - in violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic that hosts US and Russian military air bases and shares a border with China.
Interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva sped in a heavily guarded motorcade into the southern city of Osh, epicentre of the violence, to cast her vote in a local university.
"Our country today is on the brink of great danger, but the results of this referendum will show that the country is united and that the people are one. It will stand strong on its own feet and move forward," Ms Otunbayeva said after casting her vote.
The United States and Russia say they would support a strong government to prevent the turmoil spreading throughout ex-Soviet Central Asia, a region bordering Afghanistan where all countries have until now been run by authoritarian presidents.
The referendum calls on voters to support changes to the constitution that would devolve power from the president to a prime minister, paving the way for parliamentary elections in October and diplomatic recognition for the interim government.
Under the new charter, Ms Otunbayeva - the only woman ever to lead a Central Asian republic - would remain interim president until the end of 2011, before stepping aside.
Parliamentary elections would be held every five years and the president limited to a single six-year term in office.
The central election commission said 57.74 per cent of the electorate in the country of 5.3 million people had voted by close of polls. No minimum turnout is required.
Under the new charter, Ms Otunbayeva - the first woman to lead a Central Asian state - would be interim president until the end of 2011. Parliamentary elections would be held every five years and the president limited to a single six-year term.
Ms Otunbayeva, a former ambassador to the United States and Britain, took power after a revolt in April overthrew former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Though from the south, she has struggled to gain control of the region, Mr Bakiyev's family stronghold.
From his exile in Belarus, Mr Bakiyev has dismissed the referendum and the leader who replaced him, saying her behaviour was "frivolous and irresponsible".
The bloodshed also deepened divisions between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks who have a roughly equal share of the population in the south. Many ethnic Uzbeks say they were targeted in the violence and are loath to support what they see as a Kyrgyz initiative.
Some ethnic Uzbeks voted early in the day. Friends who had not seen each other since the bloodshed began on June 10th embraced in polling-station queues in neighbourhoods of Osh.
Others are still barricaded inside homes, afraid to venture out.
"The situation in the south remains extremely tense and unpredictable, with ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek residents having largely retreated into ethnically near-homogenous areas," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Election officials accompanied by armed guards carried transparent ballot boxes to locals who were too afraid to visit the polling stations, ticking off names as the boxes filled up.