Kyrgyz voters will decide on Sunday whether to become Central Asia's first parliamentary republic in a referendum. The country's interim leader says the referendum is crucial for restoring order after a wave of ethnic bloodshed.

[Roza Otunbayeva, Leader of Kyrgyz Interim Government]:
"Holding the referendum has become necessary, because we must create a legal framework, if we start now to delay or to cancel it, it will threaten us with further instability or the country sliding backwards."

Some say the referendum is good for the country.

[Gulinara, Kyrgyz Citizen]:
"If the referendum goes ahead our situation will change for the better, so we must participate in it. I am telling everyone I know to go and vote."

But others disagree and say the referendum is being held so soon after the violent events in the south.

[Edil Baisalov, Former Interim Chief of Staff]:
"The scale of the national tragedy is such that it is not only morally wrong but it's also politically disastrous to push forward with the referendum."

[Zkirjan Sultanov, Businessman]:
"Can a normal person hold a referendum at the moment? The country is in mourning, it is in poverty, the whole south is in chaos, what do we need with a referendum?"

This week thousands of refugees have returned to Osh to their shattered neighborhoods. Some are intending to vote in the referendum.

[Thakhir Kadyrov, Refugee]: (male, Russian)
"I will participate, to achieve peace. What else can I do? If they could only find the guilty ones, let them find them."

The UN is working with the country’s electoral commission to support the poll.

Voters will be asked one simple question: do they approve a new constitution that transfers power from the President to the Prime Minister?

More than 250 people were killed this month, and hundreds of thousands fled violence between the two main ethnic groups in southern Kyrgyzstan.