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.

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.