Kyrgyz election front-runner set for crushing win

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The front-runner in Kyrgyzstan's presidential election looked set for an unexpectedly crushing victory early Monday, prompting bitter accusations of fraud in a vote that was supposed to put the country on a firmer footing after an uprising last year overthrew the government.

With 88 percent of precincts counted, businessman and former prime minister Almazbek Atambayev was easily leading the field with 63 percent of the vote in the former Soviet Central Asian nation. The winner has to get at least 50 percent of the ballots cast to claim victory in one round, and a run-off had been widely anticipated.

Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished and mainly Muslim …