Protesters are back on the streets of the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek this evening, but so far security forces are nowhere to be seen.

Yesterday at least 65 – but possibly more than 100 people – were killed as security forces lashed out at anti-government protests in the centre of the capital.

The country’s president has been forced to flee to his home region of Jalalalbad in the south, while the new government says it wants to negotiate to get him to relinquish power.

The self-proclaimed new administration is promising to hold fresh elections within six months, and to clean-up corruption.

It also says there will be no change to the status of Russian and US military bases in the country.

The protests were sparked by a government decision to double the price of electricity, but there was already simmering anger about corruption and nepotism, especially in president Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s placing of his unpopular son at the centre of economic and political power.

In the past few hours the woman who has assumed the role as head of the new self-declared government, Roza Otunbayeva, has been outlining the future for the country in her first media conference as leader.

Earlier she told the BBC it was time for a just and fair government.

“Our task is to fix the situation, to set up the rules of new life, first of all to adopt a new constitution and new bodies. This will be a new, honest and just government,” she said.

Ms Otunbayeva says despite efforts by her group to encourage the president to resign, he has instead fled to the south.

That is one area she says her administration has not been able to assert control over.

But she says the new government has taken over key ministries and hopes to negotiate with the president to have him peacefully relinquish power.

It is only five years ago that Mr Bakiyev was coasting to power on the wave of another display of people power, in the so-called tulip revolution.

Today Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was giving his thoughts on why the president’s term appears to have failed.

“It has taken me personally completely by surprise,” he said.

“At the same time, I recall when president Bakiyev came to power he criticised the previous president for nepotism in Kyrgyzstan. I have the impression now that Mr Bakiyev is making the same mistakes.”

Ms Otunbayeva was an influential figure in the tulip revolution.

What many analysts are looking for now are signs of whether she and her new government can consolidate power and avoid further violence with the outgoing president and his supporters.

Foreign interests

There is also the question of how it will interact with key powers Russia and the United States.

The US is keen to ensure the continued operation of its military base that is a key staging point for its operations in Afghanistan.

It had to renegotiate the terms of that lease last year after parliament voted to end it.

Kirill Nourzhanov from the Australian National University believes Ms Otunbayeva may have difficulty asserting control.

“Politically Kyrgyzstan is an extremely mosaic-like fractured affair and whether Otunbayeva can compel all the rival clans and groups to sit down and indeed form a working government remains very much a big question,” Dr Nourzhanov said.

Chris Weafer is chief strategist with Russian investment company URALSIB Capital. He says the signs are that Kyrgyzstan’s politics will not settle down any time soon.

“There’s not going to be any sort of magic wand, any magic formulas to change the situation,” he said.

“Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in the world. People are extremely frustrated and they’ve now shown twice in five years that they’re very able and very willing to express that frustration on the street.

“So the next government coming in will be looking over its shoulder all the time and will be under a great deal of pressure to deliver from day one.”

There are a number of Australian companies with ties to Kyrgyzstan, many of them involved in mining and energy.

One of them is the listed Brisbane-based company Kentor Gold.

Managing director Simon Milroy says if the new government achieves control he does not think there will be much impact on companies like his.

“There is certainly a short-term effect from it. It certainly reflects badly on the political risk situation,” he said.

“Given the past revolution in 2005, the country got over it very quickly and within about a month the new government was installed and functioning and operating very efficiently.

“So we believe it’s a fairly short-term effect and hopefully within four to six weeks it’ll be business as usual in the country.”