DEC. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan held a parliamentary election it described as its first multi-party vote. In reality the opposition parties vowed fidelity to Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Rights groups describe Turkmenistan as one of the most repressive countries in the world.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
NOV. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Emomali Rakhmon was sworn in as Tajikistan’s president for the fourth time after winning an election on Nov. 6 with 83% of the vote. He will serve for another seven years as president. Observers said the election was unfair and undemocratic.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mikheil Saakashvili, 45, the now ex-president of Georgia, is not leaving on a high. His party’s candidate for president was trounced at the polls in October and he may face trial for alleged crimes committed during his time in office.
Nevertheless, his tenure saw Georgia go from failed state to top reformer. Georgia’s leaders now have to earn their mandate through elections rather than by revolution.
Mr Saakashvili spearheaded an ambitious programme of reforms firing the entire corrupt traffic police force overnight, slashing red tape and improving services. The World Bank now ranks Georgia 9th in the world for ease of doing business. Stiff penalties and better salaries eliminated petty corruption and the country’s crumbling infrastructure was improved.
But he was always a moderniser before a democrat and these gains were often made using strong-arm tactics. Georgia’s courts were at the mercy of the prosecutor’s office, the prison population mushroomed and torture and rape were widespread throughout the penal system. He mishandled relations with Russia, leading to a brief but disastrous war in 2008.
Most Georgians are glad to see him go and Mr Saakashvili has said he will stay out of politics. For now.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Giorgi Margvelashvili took the oath to become the new president of Georgia, ending a decade dominated by Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the 2003 Rose Revolution. Mr Margvelashvili is an ally of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Mr Saakashvili’s biggest rival. Mr Margvelashvili has pledged to improve relations with Russia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Incumbent Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon won re-election with 83.1% of the vote in a presidential election. Mr Rakhmon didn’t face any genuine opposition in the election which observers have described as a sham. Mr Rakhmon, who consolidated his power in the mid-1990s after a civil war, will now rule until 2020.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nobody is in any doubt what the result of a presidential election in Tajikistan on Nov. 6 will be. Incumbent president Emomali Rakhmon will win with a thumping majority.
The authorities in Tajikistan have already disqualified Mr Rakhmon’s only serious contender, a female human rights campaigner. He is left to face five loyal candidates who lend only the facade of an opposition movement to the election.
In power since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s, Mr Rakhmon, 61, does not brook opposition and this election will rubber stamp his grip over Tajikistan for another seven years.
Democracy advocates, human rights campaigners and anti-corruption lobbyists may complain but the realpolitik of the situation is more complex.
When NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year, Tajikistan moves onto the frontline of the fight against militant Islam. What NATO and Russia and China want more than anything else is a strongman in power who is able to impose stability and act as a bulwark against the potential move north of the Taliban.
For them, a clear win for Mr Rakhmon is their preferred option. And they’ll get it.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police clashed with anti-government protesters armed with sticks in central Yerevan, media reported, raising the spectre of instability in Armenia. Reports said police arrested 20 people after the small-scale scuffles petered out. Protesters were complaining that a presidential election in February was unfair.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s representative in EuroNest, a European Parliament group set up to promote integration between the EU and some neighbours, accused European vote monitoring bodies of trying to whip up dissent. European vote monitors gave a less-than flattering assessment of Azerbaijan’s presidential election on Oct. 9.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Giorgi Margvelashvili, a 44-year-old academic and an ally of PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a presidential election in Georgia with 60% of the vote. The vote marks the departure from power of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s leader since a revolution in 2003. European monitors said the election had been clean.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has dominated Georgian politics for a decade, will leave office on Nov. 17. A week later his arch-foe, billionaire PM Bidzina Ivanishvili also plans to step down.
Mr Saakashvili’s replacement as president is former academic Giorgi Margvelashvili, Ivanishvili’s handpicked candidate in an Oct. 27 presidential election.
However, Mr Margvelashvili will largely be a figurehead. Under constitutional amendments that come into force on the day of his inauguration, broad powers pass to the PM.
With Mr Ivanishvili quitting as PM a year after winning a parliamentary election to begin what he says will be a campaign to strengthen civil society, Georgians are still guessing who will run the country.
Mr Ivanishvili, whose ruling Georgian Dream coalition will officially nominate the incoming PM before a vote in parliament, has said he will announce his decision later this week.
The two likeliest choices are health minister Davit Sergeenko, a doctor who previously ran the hospital in Ivanishvili’s hometown, and interior minister Irakli Garibashvili, a confidant of the PM who once headed his charity fund. Neither were widely known before they joined the cabinet.
But whoever becomes PM, Mr Ivanishvili has made it clear that he will retain a degree of control
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
