Yesterday, October 21, 2007, the Kyrgyzstani people went to the polls to vote on a new Constitution–for the fifth time. Previous referendums occurred under President Akaev in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2003–the last one, combined with perceived/gigantic election fraud of 2005, sent Akaev into exile in the Russian Federation. This will be Mr. Bakiev's first referendum–and for the sake of national stability, we should all hope that it's a good one.
However, not everyone is pleased with the new Constitution, saying that it is in places self-contradictory. There's some background on the poor planning at the Central Asia Beat and more background at neweurasia.net. Asel has done a great job of collecting local blog voices on the constitutional dispute (and its relation to daily life and corruption). Mirsulzhan has written two articles in Russian that are linked there as well.
According to AFP, state officials noted an 80% turnout for the vote. 75% of the turnout voted for the new Constitution; 3% voted against. Local officials had received the word to get the vote out for a good referendum. Some human rights watchers were noting ballot stuffing in the Bishkek area. The OSCE did monitor the election, and we are looking for the reports.
Today, President Bakiev dissolved Parliament. Though some news reports are reporting differently, Central Asian experts and Kyrgyzstan's opposition leaders are saying that the Constitution gives greater power to the executive branch of government. The new legislative elections will occur on December 16th. Then new Constitution allows for proportional representation rather than a plural vote.
According to Wikipedia:
Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation), is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies). It is often contrasted to plurality voting systems, where disproportional seat distribution results from the division of voters into multiple electoral districts, especially “winner takes all” plurality (FPTP) districts.
Various forms of proportional representation exist, such as party-list proportional representation, where the above-mentioned groups correspond directly with candidate lists as usually given by political parties. Within this form a further distinction can be made depending on whether or not a voter can influence the election of candidates within a party list (open list and closed list respectively).
At any rate, it seems that politicians would like to concentrate on something besides political impasse–good choice– because Kyrgyzstan's stability has been compromised since before the Tulip Revolution of 2005. Mr. Bakiev has said he would like the government to work on economic development. However, between political impasse and economic development there are several other qualities that need to be developed. One would be transparency, which benefits both political and economic development. And it should be noted that the combination of political privilege and economic opacity is what brought the Tulip Revolution in the first place.
Stay tuned for legislative campaigns in Kyrgyzstan . . .
Photos: CIA Factbook, Jamestown.org
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
