Dual Citizenship Ban for Officials Welcomed

A draft law that would prevent senior officials and members of parliament taking out dual citizenship has been hotly debated in Kyrgyzstan, but NBCentralAsia observers are generally in favour of the ban.



Under the new constitution that President Kurmanbek Bakiev signed into law after a week of opposition protests in early November, it is legal for Kyrgyzstan nationals to take out a second citizenship, provided other local laws and international agreements allow this.



The bill now under discussion represents an attempt to exclude certain categories of people from taking advantage of this right. The draft law, submitted by member of parliament Azimbek Beknazarov of the opposition Movement for Reforms on December 6, would prohibit the Kyrgyz president, members of parliament, judges and members of the law-enforcement agencies from taking out a second nationality.



The head of the Supreme Court, Kurmanbek Osmonov, said that from a legal standpoint, excluding particular groups of people from a general right to dual citizenship would violate their constitutional rights. He said there have been cases in other countries where the president holds two nationalities.



As a solution, Osmonov suggests that a rule could be introduced requiring public servants to suspend their other citizenship for the duration of their time in office.



Edil Baisalov, head of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, is among those strongly in favour of the proposed ban.



“Dual citizenship should be banned for anyone standing in presidential and parliamentary elections, and anyone who wants to work as a judge or in the National Security Service, the interior ministry, the prosecutor general’s office, the foreign ministry or other state agencies,” he said. “Someone with dual nationality, cannot work for one country with full sincerity.”



According to Muratbek Imanaliev, the president of the Institute for Public Policy, “People in public service should place the interests of the state and nation above all else.”



Emil Kyzaev of Kyrgyzstan’s civil service agency says a list of positions from which people with dual citizenship are barred could be drawn up for every ministry and government department. He proposes requiring officials to declare any second nationality.



“No data is currently available on how many officials have dual citizenship. If people do have it, they are not talking about it openly,” he said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)