MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s parliament voted to tinker with the country’s constitution and pass some of the president’s powers to the PM. President Islam Karimov first suggested the changes in December last year. It may be that he has been forced to reduce his powers by his increasingly powerful rivals in the security services.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a ceremony to mark the 21st anniversary of Uzbekistan’s Constitution, President Islam Karimov played the role of the democrat.
He said he wanted Parliament to be stronger and to play a more defined role in public life. What he wanted to see, he said, was parliament monitoring both ministers and the decision-making process. To extend the Uzbek parliament’s reach and power, Mr Karimov said he would have to alter with the country’s already much tinkered with constitution.
Mr Karimov, though, is not known as a democrat and he was paying only lip-service to the idea of a powerful parliament. In reality it rubber stamps his decisions.
For foreign businesses and analysts, the underlying message of Mr Karimov’s latest pronouncement is that he is happy to alter Uzbekistan’s constitution to give more window dressing to the idea that parliamentary democracy exists in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
JAN. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev overruled an earlier decision by the Constitutional Council to cancel voting in a parliamentary election in the town of Zhanaozen. Zhanaozen has been under a state-of-emergency since rioting on Dec. 16 killed at least 16 people.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
DEC. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s Senate voted to cut the presidential term to five years from seven years in a move that means President Islam Karimov may legally be able to continue his reign despite being in the second consecutive and final seven-year term allowed in the Constitution. Mr Karimov’s current term ends in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
JULY 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian society is relatively conservative and — rejuvenated after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union — the Orthodox Church plays a prominent role people’s lives.
So when the government acted on a recommendation from the Council of Europe to improve the status of minority religions it triggered more than just a murmur of discontent.
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Tbilisi in the biggest demonstrations for years on July 9, three days after President Mikheil Saakashvili signed into law an amendment that granted minority religions recognition for the first time. The amendment allows minority religions to register as religious associations and not just as non-profit associations.
The Georgian Orthodox Church, lead by Patriach Ilia II, at first said the amendments were dangerous but then toned down its opposition and said that the amendments needed to be debated more fully before they were formalised.
Although the Georgian Orthodox Church’s seniority is enshrined in the Constitution, Church officials are disgruntled. Many said the changes would have serious negative consequences for State-Church relations.
Since coming to power in the peaceful Rose Revolution of 2003, Mr Saakashvili has firmly pushed Georgia towards the US and the European Union. Roughly 90% of Georgia’s population say they are part of the Orthodox Church.
Tweaking the law on religion is a risk for Mr Saakashvili but it is also an important signal to his Western partners that he wants Georgia to move further towards integration.
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(News report from Issue No. 48, published on July 12 2011)
JUNE 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz parliamentarians set Oct. 30 as the date for a presidential election, the first under a constitution which shifted power from the president to Parliament. Roza Otunbayeva has been interim president since a revolution in April last year but has said she will not stand in the election.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 21 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia took a step closer to relocating its parliament from Tbilisi to Kutaisi when MPs passed the first reading of constitutional amendments that would allow the move. The government says the move is needed to boost regional growth, opposition groups say it is designed to shift the focal point for protests away from Tbilisi.
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(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)
MAY 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia plans to move its parliament to Kutaisi, a town 200km from Tbilisi. No reason was given for the proposed move which appeared in changes to last year’s constitutional amendments. The amendments hand more power to parliament from 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 40, published on May 17 2011)
MARCH 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Constitutional amendments appear in vogue in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Georgia fiddled with its Constitution to shift power to the PM from the president in 2013, just as Mikhail Saakashvili leaves the presidency, and Kazakhstan nearly amended its constitution through a referendum to extend President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s term in office until 2020.
Now the lower house of Uzbekistan’s parliament has passed President Islam Karimov’s ideas for constitutional amendments. For the amendments to become law, the Senate needs to approve them.
Hailed by lawmakers as step forward for democracy, the amendments will mean that parliament nominates the PM and can also trigger a vote of no confidence in the premier.
But as Mr Karimov has ruled Uzbekistan since 1989 and parliament rubber stamps his decisions, analysts said these changes were aimed at appeasing the West rather than spreading real democracy.
Perhaps the more important amendment is the specification that if the President is unable to perform his duties, power shifts to the speaker of the Senate. Currently, the constitution states that parliament should elect a temporary leader followed by an election within three months.
Observers said this amendment may have been designed to both smooth a transition of power from the 73-year-old Mr Karimov and sideline potential rivals. The current head of the senate is the largely unknown 52-year-old Ilgizar Sobirov, who is leader of a small Uzbek region.
The information flow from Uzbekistan is light but these constitutional amendments do indicate that the political landscape is shifting.
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(News report from Issue No. 30, published on March 7 2011)
MARCH 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s lower house of parliament voted to amend the country’s Constitution and devolve some power from the president to Parliament. The amendments also stated that if the president becomes incapable of running the country then power passes to the head of the Senate, Parliament’s upper chamber.
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(News report from Issue No. 30, published on March 7 2011)