BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev has won a landslide victory in the country's presidential election.

    Following is a brief profile of the president-elect:

    On Aug. 1, 1949, Bakiyev was born in the Jalal Abad region in southern Kyrgyzstan.

    He graduated from the Kuybyshev Polytechnic Institute in 1972. Between 1974 and 1976, Bakiyev served in the Soviet Army. From 1976 to 1979, he worked as an electrician and engineer at the Maslennikov factory in Kuybyshev. In 1979, Bakiyev was the deputy chief engineer at a nut and bolt factory in Jalal Abad.

    In 1991, he served as first secretary of the Kok-Yangak city council, chairman of the city's Supreme Soviet, then deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Jalal Abad region.

    Three years later, Bakiyev became deputy chairman of the state property fund of Kyrgyzstan. In 1995, he was elected head of the Jalal Abad region. In 1997, he was governor of the key industrial northern Chu region.

    On Dec. 21, 2000, the Kyrgyz parliament, with a vast majority, passed President Askar Akayev's nomination of Bakiyev as prime minister. Bakiyev was forced to resign on May 22, 2002 after deadly clashes occurred between police and opposition protesters in the south, the worst violence in the country since the 1990 fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern city of Osh.

    After his resignation, Bakiyev moved over to the opposition, becoming leader of the People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan and led protests against this year's general election in March, forcing the then-president Akayev to flee the country after protesters took the government building on March 24.

    He was then named acting president and prime minister by the parliament. On April 11, Kyrgyzstan's parliament accepted the resignation statement of Akayev and slated the presidential election for July 10, when Bakiyev won a landslide victory.

    Bakiyev, 55, is popular both in his native south and among the ethnic Russian workforce, who form the backbone of industry, and intellectuals in the north. Enditem