Tag Archives: constitution

Uzbek ministers argue over reforms

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.

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

Kyrgyzstan’s government coalition collapses

BISHKEK, OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s four-party coalition government collapsed after the Social Democrats withdrew their support for it, citing irreconcilable differences with their partners.

The break-up of the coalition ended Sooronbay Jeenbekov’s six month term as PM and forces parliament to try to patch together a third government in 2016. It also comes at a sensitive time for Kyrgyzstan’s young parliamentary democracy with only six weeks to go before a bitter and divisive referendum set for Dec. 11 on whether to boost the powers of the PM.

“We tried to keep the coalition, but the recent actions of certain individuals, now our former partners, exposed the problems,” a statement from the Social Democrats said. “We cannot be in coalition with those who are associated with the common interests of Akayev and Bakiyev and those who go against the national interests over constitutional reforms.”

References to Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev were to Kyrgyzstan’s two former presidents who were overthrown during revolutions in 2005 and 2010.

The Social Democrats are the party of President Almazbek Atambayev and he immediately charged them with forming a new government.

This will be difficult. The Social Democrats hold 38 of the 120-seat legislature and will have to make deals with some of the five other parties to patch together a government. If it fails, Mr Atambyaev will have to turn to another party to form a government or be forced to call a parliamentary election.

The collapse of the government underlines just how fragile Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary system is. Mr Jeenbekov was Kyrgyzstan’s sixth PM since constitutional changes in 2010 shifted power from the presidency to the PM.

Emil Joroev, a professor of Political Studies at the American University of Central Asia, said that the weak and short-lived governments were making Kyrgyzstan increasingly unstable.

“The collapse of the ruling coali- tion, and the corresponding fall of the government underscores the fragility of inter-party agreements the tendency of divisive single issues to trump over larger, encompassing development agendas, and the ease with which partners in a ruling coalition have been able to break it with no real accountability,” he said.

People in Bishkek had differing views on the collapse of the latest government. Some were frustrated but others just shrugged.

“We are not tired of changes, we are now used to seeing it this,” said Samat Joldoshbekov, 23.

The December referendum on extending the powers of the PM is controversial because opposition groups have accused Mr Atambayev of trying to take power by stealth.

The current constitution bars Mr Atambayev, 60, from standing in a presidential election next year but does not stop him from becoming PM later, a move that his opponents say he is planning.

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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Kyrgyzstan approves constitutional referendum

BISHKEK, SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved President Almazbek Atambayev’s plans to hold a referendum at on Dec. 4 on altering the constitution to give the PM more power.

The planned constitutional reforms are controversial.

Kyrgyzstan’s current constitution was organised in 2010 after a revolution. To many, it feels that changing it now would be an insult to those people who died in that revolution.

Opposition groups also accuse Mr Atambayev of wanting to move into the PM’s position once he leaves the presidency next year and it has also triggered a fall out with his highly regarded predecessor, Roza Otunbayeva.

In Bishkek opinion was split.

“I think the changes are needed because everyone talks about them in the media,” said Elnur, a 32-year-old driver. Samat, 24, disagreed.

“We do not need changes,” he said. “The whole process reminds me of former presidents of Kyrgyzstan.”

Two former presidents were overthrown after trying to change the constitution.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijanis vote to extend presidential terms in referendum

BAKU, SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijanis voted in a referendum to make 29 amendments to the country’s constitution which opposition leaders have said are designed to strengthen President Ilham Aliyev’s grip on power.

The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) said that around 90% of the votes were in favour of the amendments, the most controversial being an extension to the presidential term from five to seven years. Other changes included scrapping the age limit for parliamentarians and presidential candidates and the establishment of the role of vice-president.

The turnout, recorded as 69.7%, was much higher than the 25% needed to validate the results although some election observers complained of irregularities such as ballot stuffing which the CEC said it would investigate.

Brushing aside allegations of an unfair voting system and whether the reforms were actually needed, members of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party said the result proved the high regard that ordinary people have for President Aliyev.

“This was a test of people’s trust in the country’s President, and it was held successfully,” said Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister and deputy chairman of Yeni Azerbaijan.

This is the second time that Azerbaijan has held a referendum to change its constitution under President Aliyev, who came to power in 2003.

In a 2009 referendum, Azerbaijan controversially voted to end a limit on the number of terms that a president can stay in office.

These tweaks to constitutions drawn up in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 have been fairly standard across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. They allow the incumbent president to remain in power for as long as he wants, reduce the number of irksome elections that need to be handled and also widen options for a handover of power to a son or daughter or favoured associate.

The Venice Commission, the European Commission’s watchdog for constitutional issues, criticised Azerbaijan’s referendum saying the the amendments would “severely upset the balance of power by giving ‘unprecedented’ powers to the President.”

And many Azerbaijanis held a similar view.

A 22-year old Fidan, a student in Baku said that she had voted against the constitutional changes. “These changes will turn the country into a monarchy,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijan’s opposition protests

SEPT. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s opposition coalition, the National Council of Democratic Forces held a rally in Baku, protesting against the upcoming constitutional referendum. The coalition said the rally would be the first of a series of demonstrations against the government’s plans to change the Constitution. Wrapped in flags and chanting against corruption, thousands took part in the rally. The organisers said over 10,000 participated. Official figures said only 2,500 were at the rally. Importantly, the rally had been authorised by local officials.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Berdy scraps age limit for Turkmen presidents

SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed amendments into the Constitution that will allow him to be president indefinitely, completing a busy round of political manoeuvring this summer across Central Asia.

Mr Berdymukhamedov’s tweaks to the Turkmen constitution follow the death of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan, and the apparent promotion of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as his successor, and a reshuffle of top officials by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev designed to secure his succession.

The Turkmen Constitutional amendments, approved in one day by Parliament and the Council of Elders, removed the age limit on the president, previously set at 70, and extended presidential terms from five to seven years.

Turkmenistan holds a presidential election next year, which the 59-year- old Mr Berdymukhamedov referenced when he commented on the Constitutional amendments.

“The Presidential elections will demonstrate the social and political activity and maturity of our citizens and their understanding of the greatest importance of elections in defining the future of the country,”

Neutral Turkmenistan, the government’s official news agency, quoted Mr Berdymukhamedov as saying.

Turkmenistan is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world. It has never held an election judged by Western vote monitors to be free and fair and has no free media.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Kyrgyz president snubs predecessor

AUG. 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva walked out of a speech being delivered by the current President Almazbek Atambayev, her protege and successor, after he criticised her for approving a constitution which he has said is flawed. The rare public putdown of Ms Otunbayeva, who ruled as an interim president after a revolution in 2010 until 2011, was delivered at a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan is to hold a referendum later this year on tweaks to the constitution which Mr Atambayev is said are essential.

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(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Kyrgyz president supports constitutional changes

AUG. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that he supported a referendum that would tweak the constitution and shift more power from the president to the PM. In the aftermath of a revolution in 2010, Kyrgyzstan voted to give parliament and the PM more power, a shift to what Western analysts have often dubbed as Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy. Mr Atambayev said changes were needed to stop a new president taking too much power.

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(News report from Issue No. 292, published on Aug. 12 2016)

Kyrgyzstan says to reconsider Askarov verdict

APRIL 25 2016, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court said it would consider revising a life sentence levied against Azimzhan Askarov, a civil activist, for inciting ethnic hatred, less than a week after the US had highlighted his case in its annual report on human rights around the world.

Last week, also, the UN’s Human Rights Committee called on Kyrgyzstan to release Askarov. The UN expert committee said Askarov “had been arbitrarily detained, held in inhumane conditions, tortured and mistreated, and prevented from adequately preparing his trial defence.”

Police arrested Mr Askarov in the aftermath of clashes in 2010 that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s government. He was then cited as one of the organisers of the clashes.

The Supreme Court’s chair- woman, Ainash Tokbayeva, said the UN’s statement was enough to consider a revision of the ruling.

“Our Constitution obliges us to take measures to protect the rights and freedoms of Azimzhan Askarov in connection with the UN Committee on Human Rights’s findings,” media quoted her as saying.

“The Committee’s decision is the basis for the Supreme Court’s reconsideration of the criminal case.”

The UN criticism came just days after the US published a human rights report that slammed Kyrgyzstan as a country where police brutality and minority harassment were commonplace.

This triggered a sharp response from the Kyrgyz ministry of foreign affairs which called the US report hypocritical and politically motivated.

The row has damaged Kyrgyzstan-US relations. Any move to reduce or relax Askarov’s prison sentence would be viewed as an olive branch of sorts.

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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)