AUG. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, officially declared himself the PM candidate for the opposition Georgian Dream coalition, at parliamentary elections on Oct. 1, media reported. The day before president Mikheil Saakashvili’s governing United National Movement party, said current PM, Vano Merabishvili, would be its PM candidate.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
JULY 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, voted in a presidential election, a vote unrecognised by the international community. Since a war in the 1990s, ethnic Armenians have predominantly populated Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has called the election a “provocation” and analysts have warned the vote may destabilise the area.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
JUNE 30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Politics in Georgia can often be messy and spill out on to the streets.
That, possibly, is part of the reason why President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed long-time ally Vano Merabishvili as prime minister.
Mr Merabishvili has a reputation as a tough operator willing to take difficult decisions. He had been interior minister since 2004 and is credited with reforming the police and stamping out corruption — a popular move that has earned him respect and a reputation as a man of action.
Installing Mr Merabishvili as PM will boost the appeal of Mr Saakashvili’s party, the United National Movement.
It’s going to be a busy election season with a parliamentary election in October and a presidential election in January. Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili is a tough opponent. He has already proved that he can galvanise Georgia’s opposition and pulled thousands of supporters on to the streets.
Mr Saakashvili may have played one of his ace cards already by installing the popular Mr Merabishvili as prime minister.
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(News report from Issue No. 095, published on July 6 2012)
MAY 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Republican Party defied the doomsayers at Armenia’s parliamentary election on May 6 by increasing its share of the vote and winning a majority of seats for the first time.
The vocal opposition bloc, lead by former president Lev Ter-Petrosyan, was soundly beaten. The numbers point to a clear Republican Party victory. It won 44 percent of the party-list vote, up from 34 percent in 2007. This was topped up by 22 wins in individually contested seats, giving it a total of 69 seats in the 131-seat parliament.
This is the first time in post-Soviet Armenia that a single party has won a majority in parliament. Opinion polls in the build up to the election had predicted a Republican Party win but with a slightly reduced proportion of the vote and certainly not with a majority.
A large victory for his party is a clear boost for President Serzh Sarksyan who will be contesting a presidential election next year, a contest certain to be heated. It is also a blow to the opposition. Predictably, although European election observers declared the vote pretty fair, the opposition said it had been fraudulent and called on their supporters to protest.
Politics in Armenia is far less about policy and far more about personalities and on this occasion, it appears voters in Armenia emphatically preferred the incumbent governing party.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
APRIL 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fierce campaigning began in Armenia for a parliamentary election scheduled for May 6. The election will be watched closely to gauge the level of support for Armenia’s vocal opposition against the Republican Party, which heads a government coalition. President Serzh Sargsyan belongs to the Republican Party.
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(News report from Issue No. 083, published on April 13 2012)
MARCH 5 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Melis Myrzakmatov, a firebrand Kyrgyz nationalist, won re-election as mayor of Osh in nationwide municipal elections in Kyrgyzstan. Many see him as a powerful rival to the central government in Bishkek. Mr Myrzakmatov was mayor of Osh during ethnic violence in 2010 that killed at least 400 people.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
FEB. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a 54-year-old former dentist, was sworn in for his second five-year term as Turkmenistan’s president. In his inauguration speech he promised democratic reforms, a pledge he has previously made but failed to deliver.
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(News report from Issue No. 078, published on Feb. 23 2012)
FEB. 12/13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – No surprises in Turkmenistan’s presidential election with Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, in power since Feb. 2007, winning 97% of the vote. Mr Berdymukhamedov faced seven token candidates, all government ministers who supported the president. Europe’s election watchdog declined to send monitors.
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(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)
FEB. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – You’d be forgiven for not noticing, but on Sunday Feb. 12 2012 Turkmenistan holds a presidential election.
The election should give voters in Turkmenistan, which has a population of five million people and holds the world’s fourth largest reserves of gas, a chance to judge Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s first five years in power.
But it won’t. This is a mirage of an election.
Aside from Mr Berdymukhamedov, a 54-year-old former dentist, there are seven other official candidates. All are party loyalists, some currently hold ministerial positions and none offer genuine choice.
Despite the government’s rhetoric last year inviting its exiled opponents back to Turkmenistan, the opposition is wary and won’t return to contest the election.
The main international newswires have local correspondents inside Turkmenistan but Western journalists met a stony silence when they requested visas to cover the election.
Even the ubiquitous election monitors from Europe’s democracy watchdog, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have declined to go. They said simply that there was no point as democracy and choice in Turkmenistan does not exist.
The only issue is what official proportion of the votes Mr Berdymukhamedov will win. In 2007, he won with 89% of the vote. Will his winning margin in 2012 be bigger?
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(News report from Issue No. 76, published on Feb. 9 2012)
JAN. 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Communist People’s Party (CPP) and Ak Zhol entered Kazakhstan’s parliament, breaking the one-party domination held by President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan since 2007. Both parties are pro-presidential. Nur Otan holds 83 seats, Ak Zhol 8 seats and the CPP 7. A committee appointed nine seats.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
