Tag Archives: government

Kyrgyzstan struggles to build a working government

DEC. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke too soon.

“There are many who say parliamentary democracy, true parliamentary democracy, cannot work in Central Asia or in many other places in the world,” Ms Clinton said in Bishkek on Dec. 2.

“We reject that and we think Kyrgyzstan has proven that it can.”

The next day, a three-party coalition set up on Nov. 30 to form a government collapsed when its candidate to become parliament’s speaker, Omurbek Tekebayev, failed to secure the necessary majority in a parliamentary vote. Mr Tekebayev won 58 out of 120 votes.

The defeat undermined Social Democratic party leader Almazbek Atambayev, a close ally of President Roza Otunbayeva, who wanted to become the PM and head of a government coalition with the Respublika party and Ata Meken.

Kyrgyzstan — notoriously fractious and unstable — is now running out of time to form a government since an indecisive election on Oct. 10.

The Ata Zhurt party, dominated by politicians from the south and opposed to constitutional reform away from a presidential system, won the most votes but has been excluded from potential coalitions. And so on Dec. 4 Ms Otunbayeva turned to the head of the Respublika party, Omurbek Babanov, and asked him to patch together a coalition government within three weeks.

This is the Kyrgyz parliament’s second coalition building effort — under Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution, three failures triggers new elections.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 18, published on Dec. 6 2010)

US judge drops corruption charges linked to Kazakhstan

Leave a Reply

NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – A judge in the United States dismissed charges of corruption and fraud against businessman James Giffen, who had been accused of giving $84m in bribes to Kazakh officials in exchange for oil concessions during the 1990s. Prosecutors linked senior members of the Kazakh government, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to the case.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)

Kyrgyzstan cancels gold mining contract

Leave a Reply

NOV. 22 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan cancelled a contract to develop its second largest gold deposit signed in 2006 between the state gold mining company and an Austrian company, Reuters reported. Kyrgyzstan said the consortium had failed to develop infrastructure as part of an agreed $200m deal. It plans to re-auction the tender.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)

Kyrgyzstan begins to build a government

Leave a Reply

NOV. 11 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva asked her parliamentary allies, the Social Democrats, to form a coalition government by Nov. 27 despite coming third in an election in October. Kyrgyzstan’s new parliament met for the first time on Nov. 10. Most of the deputies for the winning Ata Zhurt party failed to turn up.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)

Armenia’s government cracks down on corruption

Leave a Reply

NOV. 9 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan sacked 2 deputy health ministers for corruption. Mr Sargsyan has previously said corruption is widespread in Armenia’s health, agriculture, education and finance ministries. In Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception Index Armenia was placed 123 out of 178, just above Azerbaijan but behind Georgia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)

Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas still considering an IPO

Leave a Reply

OCT. 21 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is still considering selling 20% of state oil company Kazmunaigas in an IPO next year, said Kairat Kelimbetov, head of Kazakh state conglomerate Samruk-Kazyna. Earlier this month he had ruled out an IPO and instead said Kazmunaigas would borrow up to $14b for its $20b investment programme.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 12, published on Oct. 21 2010)

Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary election and its new Constitution

Leave a Reply

OCT. 7 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a revolution in April, Kyrgyzstan voted in a referendum on June 27 for a new Constitution that aims to shift the balance of power from the president to Parliament. Below are the main points from the constitution that should shape Kyrgyzstan’s government following a parliamentary election on Oct. 10, 2010:

– Parliament was enlarged to 120 seats from 90 seats. Each parliament is elected for five years under proportional representation. No party can hold more than 65 seats.

– A coalition has to form a government within 15 days of an election or the president can intervene.

– Political parties are banned from being formed on ethnic or religious grounds. The election code already stated women have to make up at least 30% of parties’ candidate lists.

– Members of the military, police and judiciary are not allowed to join a political party.

– The PM has control over the budget and fiscal policy.

– The president appoints key posts such as the Prosecutor-General, the head of the Central Bank, the head of the Supreme Court and the heads of the defence and security agencies but Parliament has varying degrees of oversight.

– The president signs legislation. He or she has the right to send proposed laws back to parliament but does not have a veto.

– The president is limited to a single 6 year term.

– The Supreme Court and not the Constitutional Court will interpret the Constitution.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 10, published on Oct. 7 2010)

Kyrgyz parliamentary election build-up

Leave a Reply

OCT. 1 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan is tense but stable ahead of an election on Oct. 10 intended to create Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy, the OSCE said. Analysts said it was unlikely that any party would win a majority in the vote which an estimated 3,300 candidates from 29 different parties are contesting.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 10, published on Oct. 7 2010)

Georgian parliament passes constitutional changes

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 24 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s parliament voted in favour of changing the Constitution to create a powerful PM. Opponents of the changes say they are designed to bolster Mikheil Saakashvili who has to step down as president in 2013. The proposed changes need to pass two more readings to come into force.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 9, published on Sept. 30 2010)

Georgia proposes constitutional changes

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 30 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will be 46-years-old when he reaches the end of his second and final four-year term in 2013.

He is energetic and ambitious, so what will he do?

Vladimir Putin faced a similar dilemma in 2008 when the Russian Constitution forced him to step down as president. Putin moved to become an empowered prime minister.

Now, Mr Saakashvili’s opponents say he plans a similar move. They say changes to the Constitution which easily passed a first reading in the 150-seat Parliament on Sept. 24 are designed with him in mind.

The proposed changes, which still need to pass two more readings to become law, will cede domestic and foreign policy from the president to a powerful prime minister.

Under the draft law, the transfer of power would occur in 2013 after the next Georgian presidential election.

Mr Saakashvili denies the changes have been tailored for him to retain power. He says they are needed to speed Georgia’s development.

Despite losing popularity after a war against Russia in 2008, Mr Saakashvili retains a tight grip on power. A close ally won an election to become mayor of Tbilisi in August and his Untied National Movement party currently dominates the Georgian parliament.

The next parliamentary election is scheduled for 2012.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 9, published on Sept. 30 2010)