Tag Archives: politics

UNM fight to shake off ex-Georgian President shadow to win over voters

TBILISI, SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Next month’s parliamentary election in Georgia marks a new epoch for the United National Movement party (UNM). This is the first national election that it is fighting without its founder, former leader and most recognisable talisman — former Georgian President Mikheil Saakhashvili.

But this may not be a bad thing. Mr Saakashvili is a polarising figure and the mere mention of his name can make Georgians recoil. He lead a peaceful revolution in 2003 that saw the former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze thrown from power as Georgia’s president. Mr Saakashvili was then president from 2004 until 2013. By that time, though, his reputation, and that of the UNM, had come full circle.

Mr Saakashvili had rebranded Georgia with a new flag, a new army ready to fight alongside NATO and a western oriented foreign policy. But he had also picked fights with Russia, and allegedly allowed abuses and beatings in Georgia’s prisons.

From a seemingly omnipotent position, the UNM had first lost a parliamentary election to the upstart Georgian Dream coalition in 2012 and then the presidential election in 2013. Mr Saakashvili has been forced into exile and is now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine.

But many voters in Tbilisi, think that he is still influencing the UNM.

Levani, a 27-year-old Tbilisi resident described the UNM as a “disgrace” which kept people under “police control and repression”.

“These days Saakashvili still has enormous influence on the UNM,” she said. “He manages to form the list of candidates for ballots, guide the activists for their provocations and generate low level international pressure to hit the image of the current government and undermine the elections.” Teona, a 25-year-old, agreed.

“They are still associated with Saakashvili and nobody has any question mark about that,” he said. “There are many new people in the UNM whom I might sympathise with but for me still they are affiliated with former regime and I don’t trust them.”

For Giorgi Kandelaki, a UNM MP, these are difficult times. He said that the decision-making progress within the party is now removed from Mr Saakashvili and that he was not trying to influence events from Odessa.

“Mr Saakashvili now is not giving any line to the party to follow. He can give advice and the party takes it on board or not,” he told The Conway Bulletin in an interview.

He did hint though that while Mr Saakashvili’s legacy was positive for the UNM’s core voters, different tactics were needed to attract new voters.

“For the voting base of the UNM, the figure of Saakashvili and his legacy is very positive. As far as concerns undecided voters, we are reaching out to this segment by bringing a lot of new faces into UNM”, he said.

The election is set for Oct. 9. The few opinion polls which have been published put the UNM and the ruling Georgian Dream coalition on level pegging.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Armenian President appoints new ministers

SEPT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan appointed a handful of new ministers, purging the previous government of Hovik Abrahamyan. Notably, Vardan Aramyan will be the new finance minister, Vahan Martirosyan was appointed transport and communications minister, while Ashot Manukyan will serve as energy minister. Mr Abrahamyan resigned earlier this month after a fall in the government’s popularity. He said a new government was needed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Azerbaijan promotes its image in Paris

SEPT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mehriban Aliyeva, the wife of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, opened the so-called Azerbaijani Village in central Paris. Ms Aliyeva, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, cut the ribbon of the temporary exhibit, which will showcase Azerbaijani culture, history and cuisine at Place Joffre, a stone’s throw away from the Eiffel Tower. Azerbaijan has invested millions of dollars upgrading its image abroad.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Kazakhs say Massimov was sacked as PM for failures

ASTANA, SEPT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — While Western analysts were studying the latest reshuffle of senior Kazakh officials by President Nursultan Nazarbayev to try to decipher what it all means for the succession issue, ordinary Kazakhs were instead saluting the changes as a result of the country’s poor economic health.

A Conway Bulletin correspondent took to the streets in Astana to gauge how the reshuffle was received.

“Changing the PM was a necessary step after failure with land reforms, as the old government was under pressure from people and activists,” said Nurlyayim, a 24-year-old Astana resident.

Earlier this year, thousands of people across Kazakhstan had protested against changes to the land code. Karim Massimov was moved by Mr Nazarbayev from the PM’s position to head of the security services. Most analysts had said that this was an important sign of Mr Nazarbayev’s trust in Mr Massimov. Locals, clearly, saw it differently.

Lyazzat, 29, also said that Mr Massimov had effectively been sacked.

“In my opinion, the president made a major reshuffle because the government led by Mr Massimov failed to elaborate an anti-crisis strategy,” she said.

Rustem, 35, an Astana resident highlighted the move of Imangali Tasmaganbetov from the minister of defence to deputy PM.

“I know Tasmaganbetov as a good politician, who is capable of bringing some positive changes,” he said.

Again this is different from the analysts’ line of thinking who said Mr Tamagambetov had been demoted. Importantly, locals didn’t highlight Dariga Nazarbayeva’s move from deputy PM into the senate as important. Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter is seen as a potential successor.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Armenia’s ruling party sags in local elections

SEPT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s ruling Republican Party lost a series of local elections, a reflection, observers said, of the drop in popularity for President Serzh Sargsyan and his government.

The elections focused on voting in civil leaders in small towns and villages across Armenia.

The Central Election Commission said that 350,000 people had voted in the election, a turnout of around 50%, giving it credibility as an opinion poll on the president.

Media reports said that of the 317 local governing bodies where voting took place, the Republican Party won 161. Importantly, though, it lost control of 30 towns and villages that it had previously held.

Analysts said that this was a reflection of the lack of trust in the Republican Party which has dominated Armenian politics since 2003. The economy is stagnant and a group of gunmen captured a police triggering a two week stand-off with police.

Earlier this month Hovik Abrahamyan resigned as Armenia’s PM. He had been in the job for two years but said that a new government was needed to restore confidence in the government.

President Sargsyan quickly appointed Karen Karapetyan as the new PM. He is a former mayor of Yerevan.

Hovannes Sahakian, a Reublican Party MP, said the worse-than-expected results were attributable to some poor local politics.

“There are many problems in those three dozen communities,” he told the RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We need to revise things, change the strategy and tactics. What happened is not a tragedy.”

President Sargsyan has not commented on the results of the elections.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Kazakh President wants to build new town on China border

ALMATY, SEPT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to build a new town on its border with China by 2020 to boost the number of people living on its remote fringe, the Presidential Administration said after President Nursultan Nazarbayev toured the chosen site and studied plans.

If it goes to plan, the new city, which will be called Nurkent (Bright Village), and be home to 100,000 people. As well as populating its borders, Nurkent will also sit nicely with Mr Nazarbayev’s plan to build new homes.

It will be situated next to the Khorgos special economic zone and should boost Kazakh involvement in the region which has so far been dominated by China.

Rasul Zhumaly, a well-regarded political observer, told The Conway Bulletin that the government had to build a new town on the border with China.

“Chinese regions bordering us are developing fast which means that Kazakhstan has to match to these tendencies. It is a necessary and important project,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Suicide stops campaign in Armenia

SEPT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Arshak Grigoryan, son of an opposition mayoral candidate in Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city, was found dead, having apparently shot himself, at his family home. Vartevan Grigoryan, Arshak’s father, is a top opposition candidate for the mayoral elections of Oct. 2. All parties have suspended campaigning.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Berik Imashev: Nazarbayev’s key man

SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev knows the lynchpin for delivering an ordered succession handover is the Central Election Commission (CEC).

With a trusted loyalist running the CEC — which oversees elections, decides on the eligibility of candidates and approves senators and MPs — Nazarbayev’s chances of delivering a smooth succession are improved.

Kazakhstan’s political class is riven through with different power groups vying for influence. There are rivals to Nazarbayev who are looking for weaknesses to exploit.

Nazarbayev’s appointment of Berik Imashev to head the CEC means that these opponents won’t find any weaknesses there.

Arguably it was the most important appointment in a wider reshuffle earlier his month, although the move of Karim Massimov from PM to head the security services, Dariga Nazarbayeva’s shift into the Senate and Imangali Tasmagambetov’s drift from the defence ministry into the deputy PM’s seat, grabbed the headlines.

Imashev is the definition of an arch-Nazarbayev loyalist. From the late 1990s, the 56-year-old has spent his career serving Nazarbayev, first as one of his advisers and then as deputy speaker of the Senate, deputy chairman of the State Security Council and most recently, from 2012, as justice minister.

It will now be Imashev’s job to ensure that Kazakh elections produce the right results with the right margins of victory that Nazarbayev requires.

And Imashev is well placed to do this. After all, he shares the same interests as Nazarbayev.

Known as a tough, uncompromising operator, Imashev is also married into the First Family. In 2003, his daughter, Aida, married Dariga Nazarbayev’s son Nurali. This makes both Imashev and Dariga, a favourite to succeed her father as president, grandparents to Aida and Nurali’s children. Imashev is, in effect, an extension of the Nazarbayev family.

Imashev’s appointment at the CEC also marks its subjugation as a political tool, although pretensions of independence had always been thin.

Since 2007, Kuandyk Turgankulov, had been head of the CEC. He had spent 11 years effectively training for the post as deputy chairman. By contrast, Imashev has no experience as a CEC official. His appointment is political, and a clever one.

For Nazarbayev securing the loyalty of the CEC was vital. This is now assured.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Tajik government snoops its citizens

SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government admitted for the first time that it had spied on some of some of its citizens by reading their emails and text message. At a conference on freedom of expression and counter- terrorism, a spokesperson from Tajikistan’s Prosecutor-General said that the authorities closely monitor internet messaging systems of certain individuals. Critics said this practice also targets opposition activists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Mirziyoyev to run to be Uzbek president

SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev said he will run in the upcoming Uzbek presidential election, scheduled for Dec. 4, immediately installing himself as the favourite to win.

UzLiDeP, the party of former President Islam Karimov, nominated Mr Mirziyoyev for the top job.

Mr Mirziyoyev has served as PM since 2003. He was named acting president less than a week after Karimov died of a stroke on Sept. 2.

After the nomination, Mr Mirziyoyev praised Karimov.

“Karimov is our pride. This man brought me up, he was like a father to me,” he said.

The Central Election Commission also said that the National Revival Party nominated Sarvar Otamuradov as a contestant, although he is expected only to play the role of sparring partner.

No Western election observers have judged a vote in Uzbekistan to be either free or fair.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)f