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Georgian Dream secures massive election victory

TBILISI, OCT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian Dream coalition won 48 of the 50 run-offs in majoritarian seats, securing a large enough majority to change Georgia’s constitution without needing support from other parties.

The run-off seats won by Georgian Dream were added to the 67 seats it won in the first round of voting on Oct. 8, giving it control of 115 seats in the 150-seat parliament, smashing their arch rivals the United National Movement party (UNM).

Georgia’s politics are notoriously fractious and while supporters of the Georgian Dream, led by billionaire and former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, celebrated, election observers were wary of the powers they now wield over the constitution. Ignacio Sanchez Amor, head of the short- term OSCE observer mission, said a constitutional majority brought responsibility.

“The balance of power must be properly observed and rights of minorities must be at the centre of any discussion if there are constitutional changes,” media quoted him as saying.

Alongside the Georgian Dream, the Industrialists party and an independent candidate both won a seat. The UNM, the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, finished with the 27 seats, a disappointing result for the party which had talked up the chances of making a comeback and winning back control of parliament. It lost a 2012 parliamentary election to the Georgian Dream.

Dustin Gilbreath, a policy analyst at the Caucasus Research Resource Centre, said the UNM can still recover as a political power but it would be difficult.

“They can continue as a major opposition party, but they need to rebrand. I think they have the potential to stay in Georgian politics in the long run, but they first need to make things works internally”, he said.

Away from the celebrating Georgian Dream supporters, people in Tbilisi, people were worried about the lack of checks on its powers.

Levani, who runs a small grocery store in the city centre, said: “It’s just a disaster. The political stagnation that we witnessed in the last four years is bound to worsen now that no political actor has the power to compel them to act.”

Another Tbilisi resident, Ketino, agreed even though she had voted for the Georgian Dream. “I voted for them to avoid the return of UNM. Nothing good can come out from having too much power,” she said.

Georgian Dream, considered traditional and close to the Orthodox Church, has already said that it wants to change the constitution to enshrine marriage as a union only between a man and a woman.

The Orthodox Church is staunchly against gay rights and many of the Georgian Dreams’ supporters have been pushing to change Georgia’s constitution to reflect this attitude.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Witness recants statement in Kyrgyz court

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — One of the key witnesses in the trial against Kyrgyz human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov recanted her testimony against her former colleague saying that she had been threatened by the police. Under pressure from the UN and the US, in July Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a re-trial of Askarov’s case. He was given a life sentence in September 2010 after being accused of inciting ethnic hatred in a revolution that toppled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier that year. Human rights lobby groups say the accusation were fabricated.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakh court sentences man to death

NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Almaty sentenced Ruslan Kulekbayev to death for killing 10 people during a shooting spree earlier this year. Like Russia, Kazakhstan has a moratorium on the death sentence and Kulekbayev will instead serve a life sentence. If the moratorium is lifted, though, he will be placed on Death Row. Kulekbayev had previously said that his shooting spree in July, which started with the murder of a prostitute in the southern city of Shymkent, was a personal form of revenge against a society which he felt had rejected him. The court, though, said that he was an Islamic extremist.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhstan’s KEGOC pays dividend

OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity distributor KEGOC said it paid a dividend of almost 25 tenge (7 cent) per share, amounting to 40% of the net profit for the first half of 2016. The dividend is almost three times as large as the one distributed last year. At a shareholder’s meeting, KEGOC also decided to expand its board of directors to eight, appointing two new local managers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Nationwide blackout hits Tajikistan

OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A three-hour nationwide blackout hit Tajikistan after a power outage temporarily halted the Nurek hydropower plant, casting doubts over the stability of the country’s electricity system. The government opened an investigation on the incident and introduced the traditional winter power rationing scheme from Nov. 1. Hydropower stations produce less power in winter months because the water levels in their reservoirs drop as the depth of snow higher up the mountains increases. The issue of Tajikistan’s power production is particularly important currently because it, along with Kyrgyzstan, is supposed to be powering up to send electricity supplies to Pakistan through the World Bank-backed CASA-1000 project.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhstan not to consider nuclear plans

NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that the government will not consider proposals to build any new power plants for the next seven years because the country’s energy balance is stable. The issue of building a nuclear or coal-fired power plant has been on and off for years in Kazakhstan. It appears that an economic downturn, which has drained the government’s reserves, has finally snuffed out these plans altogether.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

CPC exports from Kazakhstan rise

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, an oil transit route along the northern coast of the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan’s oil fields to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, said it increased exports in October to around 4m tonnes, a 24% rise compared to last year. For the first 10 months of 2016, exports have reached 35.3m tonnes. If growth projections continue for the next two months, the Consortium, led by US-based Chevron, Russia’s Transneft and Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas, will register a record export year in 2016.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Shell cuts costs in Kazakhstan

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — British-Dutch oil company Shell said it will cut costs across the board, a move that is poised to impact the company’s expenditure in Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, Shell operates a handful of offshore fields, most notably the giant Kashagan, and is also involved in the Karachaganak gas and condensate field. Sustained low oil prices have hit energy companies’ ability to spend on their upstream projects.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

US Court postpones decision on Uzbekistan’s late-President daughter

NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A US judge postponed a final decision on the handling of illicit funds accumulated by Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan’s late-President Islam Karimov. Judge Andrew Carter ordered that the US and Uzbek parties will have to reach an agreement by the end of January 2017, a three-month extension on the previous deadline that expired on Nov. 2. The funds, around $600m which a US court had ring- fenced as illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, are currently held in a Swiss bank account.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Turkmenistan completes railway construction

OCT. 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s foreign ministry said that construction work at a railway network connecting Atamyrat-Imamnazar to Akina in Afghanistan was complete. The two countries had started building the 88km railway connection in mid-2013. Altcom, a Ukrainian company, built two of the railway’s bridges. Turkmenistan and Afghanistan have tried to improve diplomatic ties to jointly combat Islamic extremists who threaten Turkmenistan’s southern border.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)