Tursunbai Bakir uulu

Tursunbai Bakir uulu (born March 17 1958 in Kara-Suu, Osh Oblast) is a Kyrgyz politician, former ombudsman and presidential candidate. He is leader of the political party Erkin Kyrgyzstan or ErK. A teacher by training, a historian, and a doctor of philosophy he is married with four children.

He was first elected in 1995 as a member of the legislative assembly, after he helped set up the Erkin Kyrgyzstan Progressive Democratic Party political party. In 2000 he was given a fresh mandate, and two years later was elected Kyrgyzstan's first ombudsman. Regularly vocal in his opposition to Askar Akayev, Bakir uulu called for the abolishment of the death penalty, the release of Felix Kulov from prison, an end to the ban on the Islamic movement Hizb ut Tahrir, and called the 2005 legislative election the least free and fair the nation had ever seen. Bakir uulu ran in July 2005 presidential elections and lost to the current president Kurmanbek Bakiev. His work as the country's first ombudsman was full of controversy.