Tag Archives: election

Tajikistan holds presidential election

NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nobody is in any doubt what the result of a presidential election in Tajikistan on Nov. 6 will be. Incumbent president Emomali Rakhmon will win with a thumping majority.

The authorities in Tajikistan have already disqualified Mr Rakhmon’s only serious contender, a female human rights campaigner. He is left to face five loyal candidates who lend only the facade of an opposition movement to the election.

In power since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s, Mr Rakhmon, 61, does not brook opposition and this election will rubber stamp his grip over Tajikistan for another seven years.

Democracy advocates, human rights campaigners and anti-corruption lobbyists may complain but the realpolitik of the situation is more complex.

When NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year, Tajikistan moves onto the frontline of the fight against militant Islam. What NATO and Russia and China want more than anything else is a strongman in power who is able to impose stability and act as a bulwark against the potential move north of the Taliban.

For them, a clear win for Mr Rakhmon is their preferred option. And they’ll get it.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)

Police crushes protest in Armenia

NOV. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police clashed with anti-government protesters armed with sticks in central Yerevan, media reported, raising the spectre of instability in Armenia. Reports said police arrested 20 people after the small-scale scuffles petered out. Protesters were complaining that a presidential election in February was unfair.

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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)

Azerbaijan criticises EU monitoring

OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s representative in EuroNest, a European Parliament group set up to promote integration between the EU and some neighbours, accused European vote monitoring bodies of trying to whip up dissent. European vote monitors gave a less-than flattering assessment of Azerbaijan’s presidential election on Oct. 9.

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Margvelashvili is Georgia’s new president

OCT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Giorgi Margvelashvili, a 44-year-old academic and an ally of PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a presidential election in Georgia with 60% of the vote. The vote marks the departure from power of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s leader since a revolution in 2003. European monitors said the election had been clean.

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Election in Georgia sparks power game

OCT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has dominated Georgian politics for a decade, will leave office on Nov. 17. A week later his arch-foe, billionaire PM Bidzina Ivanishvili also plans to step down.

Mr Saakashvili’s replacement as president is former academic Giorgi Margvelashvili, Ivanishvili’s handpicked candidate in an Oct. 27 presidential election.

However, Mr Margvelashvili will largely be a figurehead. Under constitutional amendments that come into force on the day of his inauguration, broad powers pass to the PM.

With Mr Ivanishvili quitting as PM a year after winning a parliamentary election to begin what he says will be a campaign to strengthen civil society, Georgians are still guessing who will run the country.

Mr Ivanishvili, whose ruling Georgian Dream coalition will officially nominate the incoming PM before a vote in parliament, has said he will announce his decision later this week.

The two likeliest choices are health minister Davit Sergeenko, a doctor who previously ran the hospital in Ivanishvili’s hometown, and interior minister Irakli Garibashvili, a confidant of the PM who once headed his charity fund. Neither were widely known before they joined the cabinet.

But whoever becomes PM, Mr Ivanishvili has made it clear that he will retain a degree of control

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Aliyev is Azerbaijan’s president again

OCT. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ilham Aliyev was sworn in as Azerbaijan’s president for his third five-year term despite protests from opposition groups that the Oct. 9 election was flawed. The ceremony took place in the Azerbaijani parliament after the constitutional court confirmed Mr Aliyev’s election victory with 85% of the vote.

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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)

Accusations arise ahead of election in Georgia

OCT. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the eve of a presidential election, Georgia’s PM Bidzina Ivanishvili has called outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili a “political corpse” and said that he could be prosecuted for alleged abuses during his 10 years in office, media reported. Georgia holds a presidential election on Oct. 27.

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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)

Opposition candidate barred from election in Tajikistan

OCT. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The main opposition candidate in the Tajik presidential election next month, rights activist Oynihol Bobonazarova, said she had been barred from standing. She blamed the Tajik Central Election Committee for disqualifying her because she had failed to collect enough signatures to support her candidature.

(News report from Issue No. 156, published on Oct. 16 2013)

Aliyev wins presidential election in Azerbaijan

OCT. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the end, it pretty much went to script. Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s 51-year-old leader, won his third presidential election on Oct. 9 with 85 percent of the vote; Western observer said the vote was flawed; the opposition called on their supporters to protest.

None of this is remarkable because elections in Azerbaijan have tended to follow this script.

But, there were still some important characteristics worth considering.

For a start, Mr Aliyev didn’t take part in debates with other candidates and didn’t really bother to campaign.

Then there was the, apparent, early release of the election results on an official iPad app.

The Azerbaijani authorities said the app, which appeared to leak results the day before voting even began, was simply a poorly timed test.

The main opposition group also ran a stuttering campaign. They switched candidates at the last minute because their preferred candidate failed to qualify for the vote.

Perhaps most importantly, though, the OSCE, Europe’s main media freedom and election watchdog said the vote was flawed. It said there had been numerous accounts of voter intimidation and irregularities. Then again, Azerbaijan has never held an election considered free and fair.

(News report from Issue No. 156, published on Oct. 16 2013)

Azerbaijan’s rights record worsens

OCT. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — International human rights groups have been lining up to criticise the run up to Azerbaijan’s presidential election on Oct. 9. In a new report, London-based Amnesty International described the situation for media and human rights workers as a “downward spiral of oppression”.

(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)