Voters' turnout has reached 50 percent at presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the latest information updates from the automated voting system in the Kyrgyz Central Election Committee, 1,328,127 of 2,858,544 registered citizens in Kyrgyzstan have already cast their votes. This figure makes up 46.46 percent of the list of the total voters. 

The Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's small homeland, the Jalal-abad region, leads for voter-turnout. Roughly 57.79 percent of people with vote right have already cast their vote. Chui is the region with the lowest voter turnout - to 31.28 percent.

/Trend News/

11:08

From its nomadic settlements in the north to the ethnically divided south, Kyrgyzstan's 2.7 million voters will cast ballots between 0200 GMT to 1400 GMT in a poll certain to extend incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev's rule by another five years, Reuters reported.

The opposition has vowed to stage protests in case of fraud.

"If they try to steal votes on the election day, anything may happen," the main opposition challenger, Almazbek Atambayev, told Reuters ahead of the vote. "I will be with those who come out to defend their votes."

The administration said it was doing everything to ensure the vote was fair and transparent.

Bakiyev's steps to tighten his grip on power and a string of mysterious attacks on politicians and journalists in the runup to the election have caused concern among voters.

In the past months, Kyrgyz forces engaged in gunbattles with militants that authorities have described as Islamist rebels.

Security was tight across Kyrgyzstan ahead of the vote, with 5,000 officers on high alert and extra measures enforced in the potentially restive border areas in the Ferghana Valley.

The Interior Ministry said on the eve of the vote its forces had confiscated more than 300 illegal guns and ammunition in special operations across the country.

Critics have accused Bakiyev of using the Islamist threat to bolster his re-election chances and win concessions from the United States and Russia.

"Bakiyev's presidency is increasingly hard for international partners to deal with as he has grown into the shoes of an autocratic president who is good at playing off conflicting interests," IHS Global Insight said in an analytical note.

Bakiyev came to power in 2005 after he charmed the West with promises of democracy following a wave of violent protests that unseated his long-serving predecessor, Askar Akayev.