Tag Archives: government

Insulting Tajik President becomes a crime

NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed into law a motion passed by parliament at the end of last year that insulting the president would become a criminal office, media reported. The new law underlines the increasingly autocratic nature of the regime that Mr Rakhmon has built up in Tajikistan. Last month, MPs also decreed that he should be given the title of Founder of the Nation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kyrgyzstan patches together new government coalition

BISHKEK, NOV. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan formed a new coalition government built around the Social Democratic Party, the party of President Almazbek Atmabayev, which kept Sooronbai Jeenbekov as PM.

The relative speed that parliament was able to patch together a government coalition will cheer investors and businesses who were worried about a prolonged period of instability. The previous government fell apart only 10 days ago over rows about an impending referendum.

Retaining Mr Jeenbekov, PM since May, will also boost confidence in Kyrgyzstan’s ability to withstand political stresses.

The new government coalition includes the Bir Bol and Kyrgyzstan parties, two minor parties. The coalition, though, only has a thin parliamentary majority with 68 seats in the 120-seat chamber.

A row over a referendum planned for Dec. 11 split the previous coalition government. The referendum focuses on giving more power to the PM, a shift that opponents of President Atambayev have said has been engineered to allow him to take the empowered PM job once he leaves the presidency next year. He has denied that he has such plans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Georgian Dream’s election victory

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> This has been a long election period in Georgia. Is it finally over?

>> I agree, it really has felt like a long process. This is partly because of the long campaign build up and partly because of Georgia’s complicated electoral system. There have been two main election rounds. The first on Oct. 8 was nationwide and included both a proportional representation element and a majoritarian element. At the end of this process, there were 50 seats which still had not elected a majoritarian MP. In these seats the top two candidates went head-to- head in a run-off on Oct. 31, giving the final tally.

>> Right. So to win a majoritarian seat you have to poll more than 50% of the votes. Is that right?

>> Yes, that’s right. A majoritarian seat, as the name suggests, is not a simple first-past-the-post system. The winner needs to poll more than half the votes, that’s why 50 seats needed a run-off.

>> So what is the final result? What is the breakdown?

>> Overall, the Georgian Dream won 115 seats out of the 150-seat parliament. This means they passed the 113-seat hurdle they needed to clear to allow them to change the constitution without relying on support from other parties. Georgian Dream won around 48% of the vote but the majoritarian system handed them a large majority. In 2012 the Georgian Dream won 85 seats, so this election represents a major success for them. By contrast the United National Movement party of Mikheil Saakashvili saw the number of seats it won collapse to 27 from 65. It was a disastrous election for them. Despite their fighting talk in the build up to the vote, voters essentially rejected the UNM and any possibility of a return to mainstream Georgian politics for Mikheil Saakashvili. He is currently the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine. He’ll probably stay there for some time.

>> Is this it for the UNM, then?

>> That’s unclear but they need to have a major rebrand and to drop Saakashvili from their image. He comes with serious baggage, not least dire relations with Russia and allegations of torture in prisons during his time as president. The problem for the UNM is that he is such a dominating personality it might not be possible to just ditch him. To come back from that would represent quite a feat.

>> And, wasn’t there another party which did reasonably well?

>> Yes, the nationalistic and traditional Alliance of Patriots came up on the inside, unnoticed. It came third with just over 5% of the vote, giving it six seats in parliament. They are to the right of the Georgian Dream in their politics. The Industrialists party and an independent also won a seat each through the majoritarian system.

>> This gets complicated. So what does all this mean for Georgia?

>> Essentially this election confirms the Georgian Dream’s utter dominance. This is a crushing victory. On a policy level, the Georgian Dream has a constitutional majority to changes things as much as they want. They have already ripped up the form book in politics and they may want to do the same with society. They now have the power to do this and they have started already by promoting a change in the constitution that locks down marriage as an act only between man and woman. Georgian Dream has an agenda. They now have a four year window to impact how Georgian society operates. Expect some radical policies to come out of Georgia’s government in these four years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

OSCE starts monitoring Uzbek election

TASHKENT, NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The OSCE, Europe’s democracy watchdog, started its first long-term vote observation mission in Uzbekistan ahead of a presidential election on Dec. 4

ODHIR, the OSCE’s vote monitoring unit, has only previously sent short-term missions to Uzbekistan.

In a statement, ODHIR said the government had invited it to send a long-term monitoring team. This is important because it adds more weight to the impression that Uzbekistan is adopting an outward- looking agenda since the death of Islam Karimov in September. He was regarded as difficult to deal with and mistrustful of the West.

ODHIR will send a 15-person team headed by Swedish diplomat Peter Tejler to Tashkent and 20 more people will be dispatched to the regions.

Another 250 observers will be sent to Uzbekistan a few days before the vote on Dec. 4.

Last year, ODHIR sent a short term mission to monitor a presidential election. They reported that the election had lacked competition and contravened the rule of law.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhstan seeks extradition of police officer

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is seeking the extradition of a former mid-ranking police officer based in Almaty who they say headed a crime ring that stole luxury cars from Moscow and resold them in Kazakh cities. The allegations show the extent of corruption within Kazakhstan’s police force. Prosecutors said that the corrupt police officer and his gang stole 500 cars over 10 years. Each car was worth between $50,000 and $120,000.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Gazprom influence grows over Armenia’s government

OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan appointed the CEO of Gazprom Armenia, Vardan Harutyunyan, as head of the state revenue committee, a move that confirms the growing influence of Russia’s Gazprom in the government.

In September Mr Sargsyan appointed Karen Karapetyan as PM. Mr Karapetyan had been the mayor of Yerevan and previously, also, CEO of Gazprom Armenia.

Mr Harutyunyan had worked at Gazprom since 2009 and was named CEO in 2010, after Mr Karapetyan’s departure.

After his appointment as PM, Mr Karapetyan also nominated Gazprom’s express secretary, Shushan Sardaryan, as his adviser.

Gazprom Armenia is a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom, the Russian gas giant. Russia is one of Armenia’s biggest allies, maintaining a large military base in the country.

Mr Harutyunyan’s new position puts him in charge of collecting taxes and administering government revenues.

Heading Gazprom Armenia is one of the most important jobs in the country. Gazprom supplies most of Armenia’s gas, via Georgia, although the government is trying to secure more imports from Iran. Media in Armenia suggested that Tigran Karapetyan, the PM’s 29- year-old son, may be given the job.

Russia has previously been accused of using Gazprom to pressure and influence foreign governments.

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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Tajik government proposes special forces’ rights

OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government proposed new amendments to the law on national security forces that will allow them to break into homes without a warrant. The amendments, said to be aimed at strengthening security in the country, need approval from parliament before entering into force. Critics have said that these checks will be used against the opposition.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Armenia’s parliament approves new tax code

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a third and final reading, Armenia’s parliament approved a controversial new tax code that has been in the works for two years. The new code will reduce the income tax bracket for most of Armenia’s working population, liberalise VAT and tax dividends. Critics of the reform have said that the new tax code will push Armenia into a recession.

ENDS

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

Azerbaijan to initiate ties with the EU

SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament voted to initiate a rapprochement with the EU, after relations were downgraded last year after the EU criticised Azerbaijan’s human rights record. The resolution follows an official visit by delegates from the EU parliament to Baku earlier in September. Azerbaijan quit the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Sept. 2015, after a row with the EU and the OSCE over restrictions on parliamentary election observers.

ENDS

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

Uzbekistan registers presidential candidates

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission registered all four parties’ candidates for the upcoming presidential election of Dec. 4. Acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev of the ruling UzLiDeP is the favourite. The People’s Democratic Party’s candidate Khatamzhon Ketmonov and the Social Democratic Party’s candidate Nariman Umarov both participated in a presidential election last year, pulling in less than 3% of the votes each.

ENDS

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