Kyrgyzstan: Updates From the Street

Opposition Unity?

RIA Novosti reports that the opposition is coordinating actions:

Opposition parties and movements of Kyrgyzstan have united to form the Popular Unity Coordination Council, ex-Kyrgyz Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev, elected as the Council’s leader, said on Thursday.

Mr. Bakiev said the council’s main goal would be assisting in carrying out the basic demands of the people opposing the results of the first round of parliamentary elections on February 27.

Mr. Bakiev admitted that he and other oppositionists did not know that such an organ would be established, saying the decision was prompted by the emergency parliamentary session that oppositionists hoped to convene on March 10, but failed for lack of quorum. Out of the 105 deputies from both chambers of parliament, only 20 turned up.

According to the organizers, every prominent oppositionist, many ex-candidates not reaching the second round of elections and regional representatives have joined the organization.

Mr. Bakiev promised to take the protestors’ demands into account, saying “we will back them.”

RFE/RL has more on the meeting of parliamentarians:

With just 20 of the lower house’s 60 deputies present, they failed to muster a quorum. Instead, they conducted a “parliamentary hearing” and issued a statement to decry what they believe is official wrongdoing surrounding the elections. The statement accuses authorities of breaking the law, using their powers to exclude opposition candidates, pressuring voters, and interfering with the media.

Opposition deputy Alevtina Pronenko read the group’s demands, which include a call for a presidential election sooner than its planned October date. “We demand that President [Askar] Akaev hold early presidential elections in July 2005, extend the term of the current parliament until November 2005, [and] ensure the adoption of legislation for parliamentary elections to be based on a proportional system,” she said.

There’s much more at the link, but I have a hunch that putting the presidential election before the parliamentary one would be a huge improvement over the current system. Does anyone know of a country that does it that way? I can only think of systems where both the executive and legislative are elected together, ones where there’s a long gap, and ones where the president is elected a handful of months after the parliament. The latter seems to be favored in the former Soviet Union, and seems to always give the president the upper hand in rigging votes or remolding himself based on the parliamentary results (I’m thinking of Russia under Yeltsin in particular here…).

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Nathan Hamm – author of 2971 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.

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