Tag Archives: politics

Armenian Party defies in parliamentary election

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.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)

Opposition TV station begins broadcasting in Georgia

APRIL 30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new TV station owned by the wife of Georgian opposition leader and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili began broadcasting. The opening of Channel 9 will increase pressure on President Mikheil Saakashvili and his political party ahead of a parliamentary election later this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)

Azerbaijan’s opposition protests Aliev

APRIL 22 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Anti-government protesters held their second sanctioned rally of the year in Baku, demanding the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that several thousand people attended the rally. Demonstrations are scheduled in Baku until the Eurovision Song Contest on May 26.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)

Georgian billionaire launches political party

APRIL 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili launched his political party, Georgian Dream, which commentators have said could pose a genuine challenge to President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement party. At the founding conference, Mr Ivanishvili promised to scrap income tax for the poorest Georgians.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)

Kazakhstan’s court extend communists’ ban

APRIL 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kazakh court extended by 6 months a ban on Kazakhstan’s Communist Party, one of the few opposition political parties with nationwide support. The Communist Party was first banned in October for 6 months for colluding with an outlawed party. This ban covered a parliamentary election in January.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)

Man dies in Southern Kyrgyzstan

APRIL 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A 73-year-old man died after setting himself on fire in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, media quoted the interior ministry as saying. Reflecting the frustrations of many people in Kyrgyzstan, the man had apparently been protesting about the lack of progress since a presidential election in October.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 084, published on April 20 2012)

Turkmen President sacks minister for bad parenting

APRIL 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An enraged Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s president, sacked his energy minister, Yarmukhamet Orazgulyev, for being a bad parent, media reported.

Mr Orazgulyev’s son had been racing through Ashgabat with other sons and daughters of the Turkmen elite, when he crashed his car. One person was killed in the crash.

It was not clear who died in the crash but Mr Berdymukhamedov’s irritation was clear.

Not only did he sack Mr Orazgulyev as the energy minister but he also sacked the head of the prestigious university where many of the offspring of the elite study.

The incident provides two useful insights into Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most repressive and secretive countries.

Firstly, Mr Orazgulyev’s reaction to his dismissal showed the extent of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s powers. State media described him agreeing with Mr Berdymukhamedov that he had been a poor parent and begging for any sort of job.

Secondly, the incident highlights the joy-riding, privileged lifestyles of the sons and daughters of the elite who appear to have been able to treat Ashgabat at night as their personal race track, with officials and policemen unwilling to challenge them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 084, published on April 20 2012)

Campaigning begins for Armenian election

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.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 083, published on April 13 2012)

Georgian region holds presidential election

MARCH 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia held another presidential election, although none of the four candidates won a majority forcing the vote to a second round on April 8. The election was a re-run of an annulled election held last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)

Tuvalu recognises Georgian breakaway region

MARCH 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – For a Pacific island nation with no connection to the former Soviet Union, Tuvalu has been taking an extraordinarily keen interest in the South Caucasus.

After an international aid donation from Russia, Tuvalu last year became the fifth country to recognise the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia has been drumming up support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia since the end of a war with Georgia in 2008 and the Pacific islands have been easily pushed in this direction.

Harder to comprehend is why Tuvalu, with a population of 10,500 people, and Armenia have now formally initiated diplomatic relations.

Perhaps the link is, again, Russia. Russia is an important ally of Armenia in the South Caucasus. It supplies Armenia with gas and pays rent on a large military base on Armenian soil.

Officially, no reason has been given for the new Armenia-Tuvalu diplomatic axis, although the Azerbaijani press is full of speculation the Pacific island nation is about to recognise the independence of Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh (which Azerbaijan still disputes).

More likely, though, is that Armenia hoped to win favour with Russia by bolstering the credibility of Tuvalu’s South Caucasus diplomatic strategy. Unlike Abkhazia and South Ossetia, at least Armenia is an internationally recognised nation state.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)