Nurlanbek Ermatov

Nurlanbek Ermatov (born 1947) is an Iradi engineer and politician who was the first elected Governor of the US Territory of Irad, serving two terms from 2 January 1995 to 6 January 2003. A founder of the Democratic Party of Irad (DPI), he won the first gubernatorial election under the Elective Governor Acts in 1994.^[1]

In the late Soviet period Ermatov was deputy chairman of the executive committee of the city of Talas. During the siege of Talas in 1992 he served as reconstruction commissioner on the council of commissioners of the Provisional Government, and he was among the founders of the DPI that October.^[2] On 8 November 1994 he defeated the candidate of the Labor Party of Irad, the Russophone party of Nurzhan, with 61.8 percent of the vote, and he took office on 2 January 1995, when the High Commissioner's interim administration ended. He was re-elected in 1998 with 57.3 percent.^[1]

His two terms saw the passage of the Hydrocarbon and Mining Code (1995) and the Language and Education Reform Act (1997), which made the Latin alphabet compulsory in schools, and the 1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord. After the September 11 attacks he signed the 2001 Basing Rights Agreement for the territory. Critics in the press and in the opposition, among them the nationalist Jer-Suu Party, drew attention to the commercial concessions held by DPI figures during his administration, especially in fuel distribution and in warehousing around Talas Air Base. Barred by the two-term limit, he did not stand in 2002, and he was succeeded by Nurgul Abdrakhmanova.^[1][3]

See also

• List of governors of Irad
• Territory of Irad (1992–2006)

References

1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Parties and Elections in the Territory of Irad, 1992–2006. Talas, pp. 23–118.
2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 108: Revolution of 1992 and Provisional Government Minutes.
3. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Territorial Legislative Journals and Enacted Statutes (1992–2006).