Tag Archives: election

Tajikistan cancels pay rise

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has cancelled a planned pay rise for state workers, media reported. With inflation rising and the value of its somoni currency falling, the Tajik government had planned the pay rise to boost morale, and loyalty, amongst its staff just before an election last year. With the election fading into memory and an economic slowdown taking a stronger and firmer grip, it appears to have been decided that the pay rise was no longer needed.

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

Editorial: Kazakhstan’s parliament

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – It doesn’t happen often that a parliament asks the president to order its dissolution and call for elections. But in Kazakhstan, MPs feel they have fulfilled their obligations and, with one voice apparently, asked for an early vote.

The economic downturn could potentially lead to the formation of organised opposition in Kazakhstan and the calling of snap presidential elections last year and, in a similar fashion, this year would prevent dissent.

Although it was the MPs calling for it, the decision to call for early elections came from the top. The elite wants to consolidate its power within the various political institutions in light of a prospective transition.

President Nurtsultan Nazarbayev has indicated that he is likely to hand over to a successor at the end of his current term as president in 2020. If the transition goes as planned, the successor will be chosen from the political elite that is currently in charge of the major institutional positions.

The name of the new speaker of the Majilis and the percentage of seats that go to the ruling Nur Otan party are the two main things to monitor.

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(Editorial 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 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)

Azerbaijan’s president party wins parliamentary election

NOV. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party won parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, securing President Ilham Aliyev’s control over the legislative assembly.

Azerbaijan’s Central Election Committee said that Yeni Azerbaijan had won 69 seats in the 125-seat parliament, slightly lower than five years ago. Independent MPs, who are in reality loyal to Mr Aliyev, won most of the other seats, giving him near total control.

Mr Aliyev said that the result reflected the will of Azerbaijan’s people and gave him a mandate for change.

“The factors, hindering the development of the country, as well as corruption cases should be eliminated. There is a strong political will and public support for achieving it,” he told media after the election.

The West had criticised Azerbaijan for cracking down on civil liberties and in the run-up to the election its main vote monitoring watchdog, the OSCE’s ODHIR, pulled out of covering the election after a row with the Azerbaijani authorities over the number of monitors it was allowed.

Tension has grown this year between the West and Azerbaijan. After the election result the US said: “We continue to have concerns about the restrictive political environment in Azerbaijan and urge the Government of Azerbaijan to respect the freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and independent voices including the media.”

Russia, by contrast, praised the election as free and fair. European vote monitors have never said an election in Azerbaijan was free or fair.

ENDS

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

Azerbaijan gears up for parliamentary election

OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is gearing up for a parliamentary election this Sunday, a vote tarnished by the withdrawal of Europe’s main democracy monitoring group and by accusations of a clampdown on human rights.

Relations between the West and Azerbaijan have been increasingly strained this year over Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s crackdown on the media and opposition activists. The West has accused him of holding human rights in scant regard; Mr Aliyev has responded by accusing the West of trying to plot a coup.

And in the build up to the election, the row continued to be played out in public.

Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, said civil rights in Azerbaijan were operating under a dark cloud.

“Human rights activists, journalists and national electoral observers have been muzzled using repressive legislation, jailed on trumped-up charges or forced to escape into exile,” he wrote in an opinion article for politico.eu. “Under these circumstances, it is impossible to hold any meaningful debate about the election or to ensure its accountability.”

ODHIR, the organisation that runs Europe’s main vote monitoring operation withdrew its team from Azerbaijan’s election because it said that the Azerbaijani authorities had only agreed to allow it to send half the monitors it needed.

European vote monitors have never judged an election in Azerbaijan to be free and fair and the 125- member parliament is generally viewed as a rubber-stamping operation for President Aliyev.

In 2010, Mr Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaijan party won 72 seats. Independent MPs, who mainly supported Yeni Azerbaijan won 48 seats, giving Mr Aliyev a massive majority.

More of the same is expected on Sunday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

SDK wins Kyrgyz election

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan released official results for its Oct. 4 parliamentary election that cemented the Social Democrat’s (SDK) grip on power. The SDK, the party of President Almazbek Atambayev, won 38 seats, up from 26 in 2010. Second was Respublika-Ata Jurt with 28 seats. The Kyrgyzstan party won 18 seats, Onuugu- Progress 13 seats, Bir Bol 12 seats and Ata-Meken 11 seats.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Kyrgyzstan elections disappoints many

BISHKEK/Kyrgyzstan, OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Parliamentary elections in Kyrygzstan on Oct. 4 may be being lauded around the world as a great success for democracy in a region normally more closely associated with dictatorship and the rule of the autocrat but in some circles the gloom is palpable.

And its many of Bishkek’s Western-oriented youth who are the most pessimistic. This was the group that rebelled most strongly against the edict that to register to vote you had to hand over your biometric data to the authorities.

Many decided that it was better to safeguard your personal data and lose the vote.

Sitting in a university canteen in Bishkek, a group discussed the election. None of them had voted and none of them regretted this.

“I do not regret that I did not go to elections because I knew who would win, it was the same people and parties as in the 2010 elections,” said 23-year old Syrgak Arkabayev, a student.

He also said that he would not submit his biometric data ahead of the 2016 presidential elections either.

And he’s not alone. An estimate said that up to a third of Kyrgyzstan’s population had also decided not to file their biometric data to the authorities. They said that the authorities can’t be trusted to safeguard the data.

But in any case, and this undermines the argument that democracy in Kyrgyzstan is in rude health, the dissenters said that there had been little motivation to vote in the election.

“I don’t think elections can change something in Kyrgyzstan,” said Gulzat Matisakova, 24.

Meerim Batyrkanova, 23, who helped an OSCE team to observe elections in Balykchy, a town on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul told a Bulletin correspondent that she was disappointed with the preliminary list of deputies who won seats at the election.

“Mostly, there are the same faces of deputies, ministers and state officials in the list,” she said. “There will be no big changes in politics.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: This was a successful election for Kyrgyz democracy

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Oct. 4, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary election marked by significant improvements in the country’s democratic development.

The elections have demonstrated the viability of Kyrgyzstan’s constitution adopted in 2010 that delegated more powers to the parliament and prevents the emergence of autocratic political power. Six political parties out of a total of 14 were able to pass the national and regional threshold, adding an important element of political plurality.

The elections are significant for three main reasons.

First, despite earlier skepticism, the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK), led by President Almazbek Atambayev gained only an estimated 38 seats out of total 120. This demonstrates that the president was unable to gain wide support despite his overwhelming influence over state media and the public sector.

Along with SDPK, the new parliament includes Respublika- Ata-Jurt bloc, Kyrgyzstan, Onuguu, Bir Bol and Ata-Meken parties.

Second, competing political parties tried to arrange their party lists to ensure both popularity and professionalism of their top members. As a result, the new parliament will include a greater number of powerful individuals better able to articulate their respective parties’ agendas. Greater professionalism in parliament can in turn boost the quality of political debates.

Finally, despite multiple cases of election fraud at voting booths and controversy surrounding a rushed collection of biometric data ahead of the elections, the electoral process was a progression towards greater transparency and accountability among political parties.

The government actively tried to eliminate fraud, while parties reported their campaign spending.

Televised debates featured representatives of competing parties who sought to distinguish themselves with creative policy solutions to pressing issues.

The new parliament will inevitably have a strong minority coalition either led by Respublika- Ata-Jurt block or will be composed of smaller parties aligning against SDPK.

But regardless of who will end up in the ruling coalition, the process of coalition formation is likely to be highly contentious and fraught with difficulties.

By Erica Marat, Assistant Professor at the College of International Security Affairs of the National Defense University, Washington DC

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Kyrgyzstan elections receive praise

OCT. 4 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — At a parliamentary election, Kyrgyzstan held what observers said was the most democratic and transparent vote in Central Asia’s post-Soviet history.

The Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, the party of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, won the elections with 27% of the vote, taking 38 seats out of parliament’s total of 120. This is an increase on the 2010 election when the Social Democrats won 28 seats.

The Central Election Committee said that of the 14 established parties at the election, six won more than a 7% share of the vote and would enter parliament.

Other than some technical issues with equipment designed to read some people’s identification, Western vote monitors from Europe’s OSCE passed off the election as broadly democratic and fair.

“Voting was assessed positively in 95% of polling station observed, it was orderly and well organised in the large majority of polling stations observed, and only relatively minor technical problems with the voter identification equipment and ballot scanners were reported,” the OSCE said in a statement.

And ordinary Kyrgyz took much pride in the Western monitors’ democratic assessment of the election.

Cholpon Dzhaparkulova, a 22- year resident of Bishkek, said: “Compared to other Central Asian and post-Soviet countries, elections in Kyrgyzstan went fairly and transparently.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)