Tag Archives: politics

Uzbek media reports reappearance of Gulnara on Twitter

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek local media reported the reappearance of Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov, on Twitter. Ms Karimova, whose account is not confirmed, has been under house arrest since 2014. Through the new account, Zabitaya1972, which roughly translates into ‘beaten’ followed by her year of birth, Ms Karimova allegedly published a letter denouncing acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev of excluding her from her father’s funeral in September.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kyrgyz court starts re-trial for Askarov

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyz court started a re-trial of Azimzhan Askarov, a human rights activist jailed for life after being accused of stirring ethnic hatred during the 2010 revolution that toppled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Under pressure from international human rights lobby groups, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a re-trial in July. At the first hearing, Askarov pleaded not guilty.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Tension rises ahead of Georgia election after car bomb

TBILISI, OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A bomb exploded under the car of leading UNM parliamentarian Givi Targamadze in central Tbilisi, the most serious act of violence in a heated, and at times dangerous, campaign ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary election on Saturday.

Media reported that Mr Targamadze and his driver were unhurt in the blast, although four other people were injured.

The United National Movement party (UNM), backed by former President Mikheil Saakashvili, immediately accused the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, backed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, of planning the bomb attack.

“I think he (Targamadze) was chosen as a target because he has been keeping active contacts with the law enforcement which scares Ivanishvili very much,” Mr Saakashvili said on his Facebook page.

The Georgian Dream has denied any involvement and its supporters have instead said that the UNM planted the bomb itself to destabilise the country.

Georgia’s parliamentary election campaign has become increasingly fraught as polling day approaches.

Opposing MPs have fought on live TV debates, three supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition were allegedly beaten up by a group of UNM supporters and last week two men were shot and injured at a rally being given by Irakli Okruashvili, a former Georgian defence minister.

Analysts have said that the election is too close to call.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kyrgyzstan approves constitutional referendum

BISHKEK, SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved President Almazbek Atambayev’s plans to hold a referendum at on Dec. 4 on altering the constitution to give the PM more power.

The planned constitutional reforms are controversial.

Kyrgyzstan’s current constitution was organised in 2010 after a revolution. To many, it feels that changing it now would be an insult to those people who died in that revolution.

Opposition groups also accuse Mr Atambayev of wanting to move into the PM’s position once he leaves the presidency next year and it has also triggered a fall out with his highly regarded predecessor, Roza Otunbayeva.

In Bishkek opinion was split.

“I think the changes are needed because everyone talks about them in the media,” said Elnur, a 32-year-old driver. Samat, 24, disagreed.

“We do not need changes,” he said. “The whole process reminds me of former presidents of Kyrgyzstan.”

Two former presidents were overthrown after trying to change the constitution.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s ex-PM to run?

SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Temir Sariyev, Kyrgyzstan’s ex-PM, hinted at his possible participation in next year’s presidential election. Mr Sariyev, 53, who resigned in April to face corruption allegations, continues to be a powerful figure in Kyrgyzstan. In an interview with RFE/RL, Mr Sariyev said that he had major plans for the future.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijanis vote to extend presidential terms in referendum

BAKU, SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijanis voted in a referendum to make 29 amendments to the country’s constitution which opposition leaders have said are designed to strengthen President Ilham Aliyev’s grip on power.

The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) said that around 90% of the votes were in favour of the amendments, the most controversial being an extension to the presidential term from five to seven years. Other changes included scrapping the age limit for parliamentarians and presidential candidates and the establishment of the role of vice-president.

The turnout, recorded as 69.7%, was much higher than the 25% needed to validate the results although some election observers complained of irregularities such as ballot stuffing which the CEC said it would investigate.

Brushing aside allegations of an unfair voting system and whether the reforms were actually needed, members of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party said the result proved the high regard that ordinary people have for President Aliyev.

“This was a test of people’s trust in the country’s President, and it was held successfully,” said Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister and deputy chairman of Yeni Azerbaijan.

This is the second time that Azerbaijan has held a referendum to change its constitution under President Aliyev, who came to power in 2003.

In a 2009 referendum, Azerbaijan controversially voted to end a limit on the number of terms that a president can stay in office.

These tweaks to constitutions drawn up in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 have been fairly standard across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. They allow the incumbent president to remain in power for as long as he wants, reduce the number of irksome elections that need to be handled and also widen options for a handover of power to a son or daughter or favoured associate.

The Venice Commission, the European Commission’s watchdog for constitutional issues, criticised Azerbaijan’s referendum saying the the amendments would “severely upset the balance of power by giving ‘unprecedented’ powers to the President.”

And many Azerbaijanis held a similar view.

A 22-year old Fidan, a student in Baku said that she had voted against the constitutional changes. “These changes will turn the country into a monarchy,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Political fighting takes place in Georgian TV debate

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Zaza Agladze of the Union of Industrialists and Irakli Glonti of State For The People, two candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election in Georgia, exchanged punches on live television after a heated debate. Just last week, two other candidates also fought during a televised debate.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Georgian Dream fights first election as party of government

TBILISI, SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A party of protest four years ago, the Georgian Dream coalition is now the party of power bringing with it all the challenges of a track record in government.

Georgia’s parliamentary election in October is proving to be a very different experience for Georgian Dream, its billionaire backer Bidzina Ivanishvili and his supporters who ousted the government of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2012. Back then they just had to pull in the sizable anti-Saakashvili vote.

Now they have to defend their own record.

Cotne, 37, was drinking in a bar in the old town of Tbilisi. He summed up the prevailing mood of ordinary Georgians. It’s been a glum couple of years, with the value of the lari sliding and economic conditions worsening.

“Although I did not like the Georgian Dream party at the beginning, I voted for the them as we needed a change,” he said of how he voted in 2012. “Right now there is nobody out there that I respect and would vote for.”

The election on Oct. 8 is mainly between the Georgian Dream and the remnants of Mr Saakashvili’s United National Movement party (UNM). They are bitter enemies, an attitude reflected in a raucous campaign with its emphasis on personalities rather than policies. At its core, the Georgian Dream is more pro-Russia than the UNM.

And the difficulties of defending a governmental record in a campaign dominated by personalities is playing against the Georgian Dream, the Tbilisi-based think tank, the Georgian Institute of Politics said earlier this month.

“A weak socio-economic programme without results, a devalued currency following the Russian rouble crash, pessimism about employment and the perception of rising crime after the amnesty for prisoners in 2013,”it said in a note.

“This drowns out the improvements in health care, justice and media freedom which causes the majority of the population to conclude the country is heading in the wrong direction and turning its back on the government.”

The Georgian Dream, at least officially, has also changed its front- man. Mr Ivanishvili served as PM for a year after winning the 2012 election. Now, though, he prefers to play the role of kingmaker.

Instead, PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, heads the party list. He has only been PM since the start of the year and has a far lower profile than Mr Ivanishvili, who the electorate believe is still driving the Georgian Dream agenda.

Still, Georgian Dream officials exude confidence.

Levan Koberidze, a Georgian

Dream parliamentary candidate, praised the government. “We were able to bring real freedom in the country. During our rule, we maintained stability and kept the country safe, avoiding armed conflicts,” he said.

“Our policy and governance bears the best interests of Georgia and everything we have done during past four years gives us an advantage over our competitors.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Kyrgyz President recovers

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev’s health has improved after he underwent medical treatment in Moscow and he is likely to return home at the weekend, his staff said in a statement. Mr Atambayev cancelled a trip to attend a session of the UN General Assembly in New York last week after complaining of chest pains during a layover in Turkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Comment: Georgia’s combustible election, writes Kilner

SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was always going to get heated. Georgia’s parliamentary election descended into fighting this week when two opposing MPs traded punches during a live TV debate.

The surprise, perhaps, is that it has taken so long. Reports from Tbilisi have said that this has been one of the better-natured election campaigns in Georgia of recent years.

This parliamentary election campaign is a replay of the 2012 election when the Georgian Dream coalition, the party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, unseated the United National Movement party (UNM), the party of the then president Mikheil Saakashvili, in a bitter affair.

Since then the two parties haven’t stopped hurling insults at each other over human rights abuses and corruption. Fury has been building for four years. The policy differences and what each party represents — essentially the Georgian Dream is pro-Russia, pro-Church and pro-Ivanishvili; the UNM pro-West, pro-liberal and pro-Saakashvili — get lost in the fog of the battle and character assassinations that both sides have been dealing in.

Smaller parties generally form alliances with either the Georgian Dream or the UNM and buckle up for the ride.

At the apex of the storm two men are using the election to fight a Machiavellian encounter. Neither is actually standing in the election.

Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest man. He pulls the strings at the Georgian Dream, deciding who will lead the party, and its policies.

Saakashvili, who dominated Georgian politics between 2003 and 2013, has been forced into exile, wanted by the Georgian prosecutors to stand trial on various accounts of financial wrongdoing. He is now governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine but there is little doubt he wields huge influence over the UNM His Dutch-born wife Sandra Roelofs, is standing as a candidate.

Ivanishvili and Saakashvili hate each other.

There are still eight days to go until the Oct. 8 election. They are going to be eight, tension-filled days with candidates focused on attacking one another, rather than debating the issues of the day — the state of the economy, relations with Russia and the West, civil rights, its rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

After the elections, perhaps there will be time for Georgian politics to reset.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)