Thursday, October 04, 2007

Kyrgyz Constitution

IWPR goes over the new constituion for Kyrgyzstan proposed by President Kurmanbek Bakiev, which will probably soon be the law of the land. Unsurprisingly, the document creates a very strong presidency, and in some ways reminds me of the system by which Husni Mubarak has maintained power in Egypt. A key is the centralization of opposition forces into national political parties, achieved in this instance by institution a party list system similar to that in Iraq and Israel. This will make it much easier for Bakiev to co-opt parties individually, as well as neutralizing deputies by freezing the parties to which they belong. I suspect one target of such manipulation will be ensuring no non-Presidential party is able to gain a majority of the seats. That, in turn, will leave it up to the President to nominate the prime minister and government.

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