JUNE 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nino Burjanadze, Georgia’s former parliamentary speaker and once an ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, said she will run in October’s presidential election. Ms Burjanadze has a high profile and will be a potential threat to candidates put forward by Mr Saakasvhili’s party and by PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party nominated President Ilham Aliyev as its candidate in a presidential election set for October. Mr Aliyev took over as president from his father in Oct. 2003 and is expected to win a third term. A constitutional amendment scrapped a two-term limit in 2009.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MAY 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Azerbaijani authorities of planting drugs on opposition politicians to imprison them. According to the HRW press release, the drug plants are part of crack-down against civil society ahead of a presidential election in October.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU is worried about a clamp-down on the internet ahead of an election in Azerbaijan later this year, Stefan Fule, the EU’s commissioner for enlargement, said after meeting Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Mr Fule also said a deal to improve visa arrangements between the EU and Azerbaijan was nearing.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
YEREVAN/Armenia, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The result of Armenia’s presidential election on Feb. 18 was disputed, just like it was five years ago. And, just like in 2008, the opposition staged regular demonstrations.
This year, though, the urbane Raffi Hovhannisyan, leader of the Heritage Party, led the demonstrations against President Serzh Sarksyan. In 2008, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the firebrand former president led demonstrations.
The two men took a very different approach. Instead of whiping up the crowd in increasingly antagonistic speeches, as Ter-Petrosyan did, a tactic that eventually lead to clashes that killed 10 people, Hovhannisyan has taken a calmer approach.
And has impressed people on the streets of Armenia’s capital.
“What the opposition leader does today is a new style for Armenia, maybe it’s a more Western style campaign,” said Laura Gevorgyan, a young activist who has followed most of the protests.
Hovhannisyan has dubbed his approach a Barevolution after the Armenian word for hello — barev. Despite Hovhannisyan’s efforts, Sarksyan took the presidential oath for his second five-year term on April 9. This disappointed some of Hovhannisyan’s supporters. For many, though, avoiding violence meant that progress has been made.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unknown attackers punched and beat Mahmadali Hayit, head of the Tajik opposition group the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, outside his home, media quoted his family as saying. Photos from hospital showed a bruised and swollen Mr Hayit lying on his bed. Tajikistan is to hold a presidential election in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani police raided the office of the Free Thought University, a prominent pro-democracy group funded by Western organisations, in part of a clamp-down on opposition groups ahead of presidential elections in October. The prosecutor-general’s office said some activists had been arrested but denied that it had closed the group down.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Serzh Sargsyan was sworn in as president of Armenia for a second consecutive five year term. An estimated 12,000 supporters of Mr Sargsyan’s main rival, Raffi Hovannisyan, protested only a few kilometres from the inauguration ceremony. They say the presidential election of Feb. 18 was fixed.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)
APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A monitor from the Feb. 18 presidential election in Armenia said she is being blackmailed for alleging vote fraud against supporters of president Serzh Sarksyan, media reported. Narine Esmaeli said she received phone calls telling her to drop the allegations or intimate photos of her would be released.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Raffi Hovannisian, the runner-up in a presidential election in Armenia in February, said he would end a hunger strike on April 1, media reported. He had started the hunger strike to protest against what he described as a rigged vote. Mr Hovannisian promised to continue street protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)