Tag Archives: constitution

Tajik MPs consider constitutional changes

JAN. 13 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s parliament is considering changes to the constitution that will, effectively, cement control of the country under President Emomali Rakhmon and his family.

Local media reported that MPs were looking into scrapping term limits for the president and also lowering the minimum age of presidential candidates to 30 from 35.

This second potential amendment would mean that Rakhmon’s son, Rustam, would be eligible to take over as president in 2020 when the next presidential election is due. He will be 33 in 2020.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who asked to remain anonymous said: “Both Rakhmon and his son will be eligible for presidency in 2020. I think, they want to keep both doors open and the decision will be taken only in 2020 according to situation and condition, as well as on how the incumbent president feels.”

Human rights and democracy group have accused Mr Rakhmon, who has been president since the 1990s, of acting as an autocrat,

imprisoning opposition leaders and cracking down on dissent. But governments, both from the West and also Russia and China, have seemingly preferred to see a strong Mr Rakhmon remain in power and act as a bulwark against any northern momentum from the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And most people in Tajikistan appear to support the status quo. “We need stability in the country,” said a man in his 50s walking in Dushanbe. “I don’t care who is the President, I just don’t want any war.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Tajikistan sets presidential referendum date

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament said a referendum on both ditching limits on presidential terms and reducing the minimum age for presidential candidates would be held on May 22, a move widely perceived as allowing Emomali Rakhmon and his family to retain their hold on power.

The 63-year-old Mr Rakhmon has ruled over Tajikistan since a civil war in the mid-1990s. He is generally considered an autocrat who has enriched his family and their supporters and crushed opposition.

Last year the Tajik authorities banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, previously the country’s only official opposition party.

Mr Rakhmon appears to be hedging his bets ahead of a presidential election in 2020.

The constitutional changes, which are likely to be voted through by Tajiks more concerned with the economy than political reforms, will mean that he can either stand for a fourth term as president or that his eldest son, Rustam, can run for president. Rustam will be 33 in 2020. The constitutional amendments will reduce the minimum age for presidential candidates to 30 from 35.

People voting in the referendum will also be asked to decide whether to outlaw political parties linked to religion, a move appeared designed to block any splinter group from the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) gaining any popular backing.

Separately, a court in Dushanbe started the trial of 13 members of the IRPT who are accused of radicalism.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Armenians vote to hand more power to the PM

DEC. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenians voted overwhelmingly in a constitutional referendum to shift power from the president to the prime minister, a move supporters of the change said was a natural modernising step but its critics decried as a thinly veiled power-grab by President Serzh Sargsyan.

The Central Election Commission said 63% of people had voted in favour of the referendum, a far bigger margin of victory than polls had predicted in the run up to the vote.

But Armenia’s opposition said that the vote had been rigged and urged an investigation, a move supported by the US embassy.

Hundreds of people gathered in Yerevan’s central square after the referendum to protest again the result.

Turnout at the vote, though, was reportedly low, despite the high-profile nature of the reforms. Some analysts said the low turnout betrayed people’s belief that the changes had been brought in to improve the position of the ruling elite rather than update the political system.

Lilit Gevorgyan, an analyst at IHS, said that shifting to a parliamentary system was dressed up as a progressive move but was in fact a way for the political and economic elite to shore up their positions.

“It’s an innovative way of solving the succession issue,” she said.

The new rules are set to be introduced at a parliamentary election in March 2017. Mr Sargsyan is set to leave the presidency in 2018.

As well as handing a slimmed down parliament of 101 members elected via proportional representation more power, the new constitution builds in a run-off system which will ensure a majority for a single party.

This last issue was also contentious.

The reformists argued that this system avoided weak minority governments. Its opponents said it bordered on a form of totalitarian rule.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Georgia strips Saakashvili of his citizenship

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree stripping Mikheil Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship.

When he was in power between 2003 and 2013 Mr Saakashvili painted himself as proud Georgian patriot and it is likely that losing his Georgian citizenship will hurt and even humiliate him.

Under Georgian laws, though, dual citizenship is illegal.

In May this year, Mr Saakashvili took Ukrainian citizenship, allowing him to take up an offer by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to be governor in Odessa.

This meant that, formally, the government had to strip Mr Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship.

“Based on the law of Georgian citizenship, President Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree terminating Mikheil Saakashvili’s citizenship due to his acquisition of a foreign country’s nationality,” the Georgian presidential press service said.

The AFP news agency quoted Mr Saakashvili as telling Georgia’s Rus- tavi-2 TV station that he was angry.

“They can take away my passport, but they can’t do anything with my love for my Motherland,” he said.

Although the constitution bans Georgians from taking dual nationality it doesn’t force foreigners taking Georgian citizenship to renounce their original nationality.

Georgia’s prosecutor-general also wants to arrest Mr Saakashvili and charge him with various crimes. Mr Saakashvili has always said the charges are politically motivated. Several of Mr Saakashvili’s former government colleagues and government officials have been arrested.

The European Union and the West have also warned Georgia’s government not to politicise the criminal system.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Armenians prepare to vote in constitutional referendum

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia prepared to vote in a referendum which would change the constitution to give the PM more authority in a move that opposition groups have said is designed to strengthen President Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power.

The debate over the constitution has triggered mass public protests with an estimated 3,000 people marching through Yerevan on Dec. 1 to protest against the referendum set for Dec. 6

The demonstrators said that the proposed changes were a scam to hand Mr Sargsyan more power when he leaves the presidency at the end of his final two year term in 2018.

Mr Sargsyan and his party have said that he has no plans to become PM once he quits as president.

Instead he has argued that the current system of split responsibilities between the PM and the president could create a weakness in emergencies.

Opinion polls in the run-up to the vote said it would be close with, perhaps, those who said they would vote for the changes marginally ahead.

Georgia and Kyrgyzstan have already shifted power away from their presidents to parliament and the PM. Each said the changes were needed to modernise their political systems.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Referendum campaign starts in Armenia

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Campaigning has started ahead of a referendum on Dec. 6 on the Armenian constitution. The referendum debate focuses on whether to increase the powers of Parliament and the PM over the President. Opposition groups say Pres. Serzh Sargsyan wants to give himself more power once he leaves the presidency in 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Armenian president names new PM

APRIL 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan named the speaker of the parliament, Hovik Abrahamyan, as the new PM.

Mr Abrahamyan’s brief is a tough one.

His predecessor quit abruptly at the start of the month the day after the Constitutional Court ruled that the government’s landmark pension reforms were illegal.

The reforms have been deeply unpopular, as are pension reforms throughout the world which try to make people work for longer and accept a smaller payout.

That mess, essential for sorting out Armenia’s damaged social security system, has to be sorted out.

There’s also the small matter of a vote of no confidence to deal with later this month. Armenia’s economy is stalling and its foreign policy at times feels adrift from its people — it has lurch towards Russia’s Customs Union at the expense of greater EU integration.

Mr Abrahamyan, a 56-year-old economist who has been speaker of parliament since 2008, is going to have to prove a tough operator in his new job.

(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)

Armenian court says pension reform is illegal

APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the government’s flagship pension reforms were illegal, triggering a fresh crisis at the top of the Armenian political spectrum.

The ruling was a major blow to the government which has stubbornly stuck to its pension reform agenda despite increasing levels of public discontent. It also appeared to come as a surprise.

The following day Tigran Sargsyan resign as Armenia’s PM, although he did not link his resignation explicitly with the Court’s ruling. There have been perpetual rumours about his health and other job offers.

Later this month, the government also faces a vote of no confidence in parliament. Opinion polls have shown that its popularity has sunk to fresh lows.

And most of this unpopularity stems from the pension reforms.

Thousands have marched against changes which were introduced at the start of the year. The reforms stated that everybody born after Jan. 1 1974 would have to pay 5% of their salary into a state pension fund. The state has promised to match private contributions to the pension fund up to a maximum of $61 per month.

But now the Constitutional Court has ruled that the pension reforms introduced by the government restrict the rights of its citizens.

The problem for Armenia is, similarly to other countries in the former Soviet Union, it simply has to reform its state pension system to pay for its aging population and to compensate for the large grey economy.

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Uzbekistan changes its constitution

MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s parliament voted to tinker with the country’s constitution and pass some of the president’s powers to the PM. President Islam Karimov first suggested the changes in December last year. It may be that he has been forced to reduce his powers by his increasingly powerful rivals in the security services.

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Karimov boosts parliament powers in Uzbekistan

DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a ceremony to mark the 21st anniversary of Uzbekistan’s Constitution, President Islam Karimov played the role of the democrat.

He said he wanted Parliament to be stronger and to play a more defined role in public life. What he wanted to see, he said, was parliament monitoring both ministers and the decision-making process. To extend the Uzbek parliament’s reach and power, Mr Karimov said he would have to alter with the country’s already much tinkered with constitution.

Mr Karimov, though, is not known as a democrat and he was paying only lip-service to the idea of a powerful parliament. In reality it rubber stamps his decisions.

For foreign businesses and analysts, the underlying message of Mr Karimov’s latest pronouncement is that he is happy to alter Uzbekistan’s constitution to give more window dressing to the idea that parliamentary democracy exists in Uzbekistan.

(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)