A new Kyrgyz constitution, proposed by referendum, was approved by 79.3% of voters according to preliminary results. Turnout, however, was low: just over 35%.

Voters in Kyrgyzstan have approved a new constitution. According to preliminary results of the 11 April constitutional referendum, 79.3% voted for the change, the Kyrgyz Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced. With this vote and the new constitution, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov sees his role gain sweeping new powers.

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The vote, which took place at the same time as local elections, had very low turnout. Also according to the CEC, 35.9% of citizens of voting age participated in the poll, slightly above the threshold of 30% legally required to validate the referendum. This proportion is similar to that of the presidential election on 10 January, which Sadyr Japarov won with nearly 80% of the vote but a 39% turnout.

A victory for the “Khanstitution”

Despite everything, the vote remains a new milestone for Kyrgyzstan’s new strongman. Sadyr Japarov proposed this constitutional change in mid-November 2020, shortly after a rise to power that saw him go from convict to prime minister and interim president. Critics in and out of the country say the new constitution will make Kyrgyzstan an authoritarian state.

Read more: Rise and fall… and rise: the career of Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov

These critics have sometimes referred to this new constitution as a “Khanstitutsiya” (that is, a “Khan constitution”). Indeed, it greatly expands the president’s power without providing institutional counterbalance. As described by the Kyrgyz media outlet Kloop, the new constitution makes the president the sole head of the executive, reducing the prime minister to a subordinate role. The president can in addition now propose laws directly to parliament. According to the Venice Commission’s analysis at the end of March, this “creates a real risk of undermining the separation of powers and the rule of law in the Kyrgyz Republic”.

“Super-presidential” government

Correspondingly, the Kyrgyz press agency AKIPress describes the new constitution as a “legally enshrined super-presidential form of government “ and points out that Kyrgyzstan was de facto under such a system of government already under the presidents Askar Akaev (1990-2005), Kurmanbek Bakiev (2005-2010) and the final years of Almazbek Atambaev‘s presidency (2011-2017).

“To put it simply, the governments of Kyrgyzstan have already tried all possible variants of the political system,” AKIPress adds. “But the problem that we do not want to recognise does not lie in the constitution or in the lack of ideal laws…”

President Japarov describes the constitutional referendum as a solution to political instability in Kyrgyzstan. “Kyrgyzstan has been looking for its way for thirty years, a time during which there have been waves of unrest. All of this is a consequence of the incoherence of our intentions and aspirations,” he declared on the day of the referendum. “Our future path is closely linked to your decision today.”

Updated at 11.50am on 12 April 2021: added final section

Etienne Combier
Editor-in-chief of Novastan France

Florian Coppenrath

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The post Kyrgyzstan: voters approve new constitution in referendum appeared first on Novastan English.

It’s official: Kyrgyzstan will choose whether or not to modify its constitution on 11 April. Parliament approved the bill making provisions for a referendum last week and the president, Sadyr Japarov, signed it into law on 12 March. Proponents say the changes will make government more efficient, but many worry they give the president too much power and restrict freedom of speech.

Kyrgyzstan will vote on constitutional amendments on 11 April 2021 according to a new law President Sadyr Japarov signed on 12 March. The Jogorku Kenesh, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, approved the bill in second and third readings the previous day. 94 MPs voted in favour of the bill and six against.

A draft of the constitutional amendments was first published on 17 November 2020 on the initiative of Sadyr Japarov while he was campaigning for the presidential election. It proved controversial, with activists promptly dubbing it a “Khanstitution” because of the strong powers it gave the president, the Kyrgyz media Kloop.kg reports. Talant Mamytov, the interim president from November 2020 to January 2021, then formed a constitutional council to rework the amendments.  

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A referendum followed on 10 January, on the same day as the presidential election, asking voters to choose their preferred form of government. According to the official results, nearly 85% opted for a presidential regime. Just over 11% supported a parliamentary system and a little under 5% voted “against all”. Turnout was 39.12%, above the 30% minimum threshold.

Expanded presidential powers

The proposed amendments increase presidential powers. Article 70 grants the president the power to call a referendum “on their own initiative or on the initiative of at least 300 thousand voters, or on the initiative of a majority of deputies of the Jogorku Kenesh” and to propose new bills in parliament.

The same article also plans for the president to appoint members of the government, appoint and dismiss the chairs of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court and their deputies. Under current law, the president already appoints local judges and the procurer general.

The changes would also allow the president to run for a second term, which the current constitution forbids, and reduce the Jogorku Kenesh from 120 to 90 members.

Read more: Rise and fall… and rise: the career of Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov

President Sadyr Japarov told Azattyk, the Kyrgyz branch of the American media RFE/RL, that the change was necessary to “establish order”. In his view, in the current system “neither the president, nor the government, nor the parliament, decides anything”, leaving the country at a standstill.

“According to the current Constitution, there are three branches – government, parliament and president. The last 10 years have shown that this has led to an increase in bureaucracy, no one wants to take on the solution of issues,” he said. “The president does everything through the government and parliament, shifts the responsibility unto them. I could do that, too. But in this case, Kyrgyzstan will lose another 5-10 years.”

People’s Kurultai

Another section of the draft provides for the creation of an assembly known as the “People’s Kurultai”, a name derived from a type of council in Turkic culture. It gives “recommendations on the directions of social development” but says little about what this might mean. The kurultai can also recommend the dismissal of members of government, advises the president, and proposes new laws to parliament. 

Aksana Ismailbekova, a research fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) whose work focuses on kinship and patronage in Kyrgyzstan, explains that in theory the People’s Kurultai is a way to involve the country’s regions and hold officials accountable.

“Ideally, the kurultai will be able to address very important political issues in which representatives of each regional group will take an active part. The idea is that once the kurultai is legitimised, state officials will be required to report annually on their activities, work, and projects to the regional leaders of Kyrgyzstan,” Ismailbekova told Novastan.

But she highlights this is the ideal and practice could be different. “The big question remains whether the country’s current leaders would allow members of the kurultai, once it is legitimized, to objectively control state officials,” she said. “There are also groups of people who distort the essence and meaning of the People’s Kurultai. Some state officials might use the Kurultai as a political tool to gain power.”

The legal aid clinic Adilet, in Bishkek, expresses a more negative point of view in its analysis of the draft constitution, describing the goals and reasons for the creation of the People’s Kurultai as unclear. It also underlines the new assembly could be used to serve the president’s ends: “There are risks of interference and pressure on all institutions of power, as on the civil sector, from the president through the People’s kurultai,” the analysis reads.

Emphasis on “moral and ethical values”

Another contentious part of the draft is article 10, which states: “Events that contradict moral and ethical values and the public consciousness of the people of the Kyrgyz Republic, may be limited by law.” It goes on to say that “the list of activities subject to restriction and the list of restricted access and dissemination of information is established by law” without further detail.

“Article 10 of the Constitution contrains a threat to freedom of speech,” the former lawmaker Ravshan Jeenbekov said in a discussion organised by Azattyk. “It’s dangerous to limit freedom of speech with reference to the preservation of moral values.”

The worry arises despite parts 1-3 of article 10 guaranteeing freedom of expression and media freedom, according to Mars Tulegenov, the head of the media rights organisation Journalist.kg.

“There are points that raise questions. If the constitution is adopted and ‘the rest will be determined by an additional law,’ what laws will be adopted? … We have enough media laws. We don’t need any more,” he said.

A controversial project

Although the amendments are expected to be approved in the referendum, many in Kyrgyzstan have criticised the project from the onset. “We are returning to authoritarianism,” the MP Dastan Bekechev wrote on his Facebook page at the time.

The former president Roza Otunbaeva even stated that after the implementation of such a constitution, international organisations would stop providing aid to Kyrgyzstan, Kloop reported.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan elects Sadyr Japarov and opts for presidential government

In response to criticism, a new Constitutional Council reworked the document. A new version was published on 9 February. Although it notes “positive changes”, Adilet’s analysis of this new document concludes that it “violates the principles of the rule of law and legal certainty, there are internal contradictions of a fundamental nature, as well as incorrect wording of the rules of law”.

Local media also highlights that the parliamentary votes of the draft law establishing the referendum did not follow the correct procedure. Notably, Kloop.kg alleges that although 100 deputies voted, there were only around 80 people in the room at the time, meaning some cast votes on behalf of their colleagues. 

A member of the Jogorku Kenesh, Janar Akaev, told journalists lawmakers had voted under pressure. “Those who voted against [the bil] in the first reading were pressured and threatened. Therefore, they did not come to vote today” he said, as quoted by 24kg. “Deputies are afraid to speak openly.”

Aksana Ismailbekova expands on the pressure exerted on parliament in Kyrgyzstan, explaining that, according to her research, many deputies are businessmen. “It is impossible to do business entirely legally in Kyrgyzstan, so the State Committee for National Security has compromising documents and you can’t say anything against it,” she said. “As a result, this parliament cannot be independent when the president has influence on the security sector.”

Valentine Baldassari

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The post Kyrgyzstan to hold constitutional referendum in April appeared first on Novastan English.

Kyrgyzstan is holding a snap presidential election on 10 January. Candidates include well-known politicians, businessmen and even a self-proclaimed god. The country will also be voting on a constitutional reform the same day.

This article was originally published on Novastan’s German website.

There are 18 people running for president in Kyrgyzstan’s snap presidential election on 10 January, the Electoral Commission announced on 12 December: 17 men and one woman.

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At the end of November, there were still 47 candidates. Some withdrew but others failed to submit the documents proving their eligibility. According to the country’s electoral law, candidates for the presidency must prove their knowledge of Kyrgyz, raise one million som (approximately £8,750) and gather at least 30,000 signatures.

President Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigned on 15 October following a controversial parliamentary election and resulting political crisis. The results of the election were annulled, and a new vote scheduled for 20 December, though the outgoing parliament later postponed it to spring 2021.

At the beginning of December, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court declared this amendment to the electoral law legal, despite the doubts expressed by numerous lawyers and by the Venice Commission, a European body advising states on issues of constitutional law.

Instead of a new parliamentary election, there will be a referendum in which voters will be asked to choose between a parliamentary and a presidential system of government. This vote will take place on the same day as the presidential election, 10 January. However, as the online media Kloop reports, the law approving the referendum was passed through a series of violations of parliamentary rules and existing legislation.

The new head of state will therefore have a lot to do:  in addition to the renewed parliamentary election, Kyrgyzstan can expect a constitutional amendment, on top of the socio-economic crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The front-runner and his competition

According to observers, the clear favourite is Sadyr Japarov. This would be the culmination of his meteoric political rise from prison to the leadership of the executive branch. He was one of the last to submit his candidacy on the cut-off date, having previously resigned the offices of interim prime minister and interim president.

In addition to having the support of a significant part of the population, this right-wing populist politician can count on Internet troll factories, as well as on what is by far the largest campaign budget with almost 50 million som (approximately £438,000) as of the 18th December.

He also seems able to mobilise administrative resources – a term widely used to describe the use of public resources for an individual’s own interests. For example, the Electoral Commission pointed out that during one of Japarov’s speeches, supposedly neutral security officers were photographed wearing his campaign’s colours.

Read more on Novastan : From prison to high office: Sadyr Japarov is Kyrgyzstan’s new prime minister

The Electoral Commission refused the objection by several opposing candidates that Japarov’s running in the election was unconstitutional. According to the constitution, the interim president cannot run in a snap presidential election.

Should Japarov stay in the race and win the election, he would campaign for a new constitution that would significantly expand the powers of the president. A draft of the constitution is already in circulation.

Japarov’s main political opponent is Adakhan Madumarov, the leader of the Bütün Kyrgyzstan (United Kyrgyzstan) party, who had already participated in the 2011 and 2017 presidential elections. As the lawyer and former presidential candidate Taalatbek Masadykov explained to Deutsche Welle, Madumarov is also very popular. Had the results of last year’s parliamentary election been upheld, Bütün Kyrgyzstan would have entered parliament as the fourth party with over seven percent of the vote. With its nationalistic positions, it is targeting the same core electorate as Japarov.

Long-time MP Kanatbek Isayev is also a veteran of Kyrgyz party politics. In the October election, he headed the list of the Kyrgyzstan party, which received almost nine percent of the vote. After the election was cancelled, Isayev was for a time the chairman of the Kyrgyz parliament. His resignation paved the way for Japarov’s interim presidency. At a press conference on 19 November, however, he spoke out against the constitutional change: “We have already seen a presidential system of government. Twice – in 2005 and 2010 – this system led to tragic events,” he said, as quoted by Kloop.

Opposition candidates

On 24 November, seven other candidates spoke out against illegal acts by Sadyr Japarov in a press conference. Three of them are still in the running.

Foremost is the former constitutional judge Klara Sooronkulova. She filed the complaints against the delay of the parliamentary election and against Sadyr Japarov’s candidacy. As interim president, Sadyr Japarov was able to “travel to all regions and use his position to benefit his election campaign”, she declared in November. “The fairness and honesty of the election is under question.”

Sooronkulova is also the party leader of the young liberal opposition party Reforma, which obtained approximately 1.7 percent of the vote in October and is committed to a renewal of the political class.

Read more on Novastan: Kyrgyzstan: governing party wins “dirty” parliamentary elections

Kanybek Imanaliev, a long-time politician and outgoing member of parliament, was on the list of the Mekenim Kyrgyzstan party in October. In the run-up to the election, he spoke out against the planned constitutional reform several times and declared at a media forum in November that journalism is “the only legitimate power” in Kyrgyzstan.

At the press conference in November, he said Kyrgyzstan would become “a second Afghanistan” should Japarov win the election, and that the country would have “the most uneducated ruler in its history“.

Ravshan Jeenbekov – no relation to the former president Sooronbay Jeenbekov – is also a well-known face in the opposition. Like Japarov and several other political figures, he was released from prison on the morning of 6 October. He had been there for almost a year in relation to the violent arrest of ex-president Almazbek Atambayev in 2019. The investigation is ongoing and Ravshan Jeenbekov is thus banned from leaving Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan. A court upheld this ban on 16 December, a decision Ravshan Jeenbekov called “a political judgment”.

Ravshan Jeenbekov described his political position in a video interview: “I have always fought for democracy, human rights and freedom … Overall, I see myself as a democrat, not just a liberal democrat.”

Former senior officials

Two former members of the security services are also running for the presidency election. Kursan Asanov had had a career in the police for about 20 years when he became deputy interior minister in 2011.

In August 2019, he was dismissed for alleged misconduct during Atambayev’s arrest: he had contacted Atambayev directly to persuade him to surrender. During the unrest in early October, he briefly occupied the post of interior minister and was arrested on 9 October after clashes in Bishkek. According to Kloop, he was initially forbidden from leaving Bishkek, a restriction lifted on 16 December so that he could campaign.

The former coordinator of the Soros Foundation Kyrgzystan (1995-2000) Abdil Segizbaev has built his political career at the side of ex-President Atambayev. He started as an assistant and consultant before joining the GKNB, the national intelligence agency. He was head of the GKNB in 2015-2018.

On 15 December, he started his election campaign at the Ata-Beyit memorial near Bishkek, which is dedicated not only to the victims of the Red Terror but also to those of the 2010 revolution. “Our fellow citizens who became the victims of these people are buried here. I will never betray the memory of our heroes,” he said in a speech. As the press agency Akipress noted, this was an allusion to an alleged connection between Japarov and the regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, overthrown in 2010.

Ulukbek Kochkorov was minister of labour and social development between October 2018 and October 2020. He claims that he learnt of his resignation from the Internet. “This is not a tragedy. I am more concerned about the current situation in Kyrgyzstan. The political and economic situation, the standard of living of the population; unfortunately, everything is in danger, we are in a crisis,” he responded in a video message. Kochkorov is the party leader of Jangy Door (New Age), but in October he stood for the “presidential party” Birimdik.

Businessmen

There are figures from the business world among the candidates. Some also have experience in the public service. For example, the former deputy economy minister (2016-2019) Eldar Abakirov, who ran for the Ata-Meken party in the last parliamentary election. Over the past decade, Abakirov has co-founded business projects in various industries such as textiles and fast food.

Another example is Jengishbek Bayguttiev. He was minister for economic regulation for six months between 2009 and 2010, after being a long-time advisor to the finance minister and from 2006 to 2009 advisor to President Bakiyev. Today he owns three pawn shops and other companies in consulting, finance and education.

The up till now rather discreet Aymen Kassenov has had a successful career in the oil business, in particular with the Russian corporation Gazprom, where he worked as country director for Kazakhstan in 2007-2015. Between 2016 and 2019, he was a board member of the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund, a fund created when Kyrgyzstan joined the Eurasian Economic Union.

Babyrjan Tolbayev began his career in international organisations in the 1990s before moving into the private sector. Today he is mostly known for funding MolBulak, a microcredit firm popular with migrant workers in Russia.

The owner and director of the building company KG-Group, Imanidin Tashov, said at a press conference on 24 November that he could pay off the national debt to China within three years and put Kyrgyzstan back on its feet after 30 years of suffering. The electoral commission interpreted this as a premature election campaign and fined him.

Hard to be a god

Arstanbek Abdyldayev (or Arstan Alai) is known to many in Kyrgyzstan for his bizarre statements, especially his assertion that “there will be no winter” at a press conference in 2011. At the end of 2019, he declared himself a god, and in March 2020 announced he had sent the coronavirus to Earth. He owns several companies in trade and finance and is running for president for the third time.

The journalist and businessman Arstanbek Myktybek is mainly active in the religious sphere. He has been a lecturer in theology at Arabaev University in Bishkek since 2011 and head of the Center for the Development of the Halal Industry since 2012. His YouTube channel, which he launched in 2012, is also primarily dedicated to religious topics.

Rashid Tagayev, 62, is the oldest of the candidates. Between 1985 and 2005 he worked in the police force before moving into parliament for five years. Most recently, he was head of the Gazprom Kyrgyzstan branch in Osh between 2016 and 2020.

At the other end of the age spectrum is Baktybek Kalmamatov, the youngest presidential candidate at 36. He was a member of parliament for the Ata-Meken party between 2010 and 2015, after coordinating the party’s activities in the Osh region, in the south of the country.

Florian Coppenrath
Founder of Novastan Deutsch

Translated by Etienne Combier and Valentine Baldassari

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The post Kyrgyzstan: voters face choice of 18 candidates in January election appeared first on Novastan English.