Kyrgyzstan: Parliament Under Threat

A chill wind is blowing through the Kyrgyz parliament as many members look for new jobs, convinced that a constitutional referendum next month will strip them of their mandates.

A new constitution, to be put to a referendum on February 2, reduces the bicameral parliament to one chamber. President Askar Akaev says the reform will not take effect until 2005 - when the current parliamentary term and Akaev's period in office end.

But the president's critics are unconvinced and suspect he will press ahead with the move immediately after the vote, which he is almost certain to carry.

Opposition to Akaev is concentrated in parliament and cutting it back would make it harder for anti-government political representatives to get elected.

"Akaev is preparing the legal grounds for neutralising his main political opponents," said leading opposition politician Adakhan Madumarov.

Pro-government parties campaigned throughout last year for a single chamber parliament, arguing deputies were spending far too much time caught up in politics and not enough drawing up laws.

"The greatest threat comes from opposition deputies. They receive the people's money but work against the people's interests. They don't allow our president to work in peace," Democratic Women's party leader Tokon Shailieva said in a recent speech on national television.

The head of the presidential administration department for defence and safety, Bolot Januzakov, has insisted that talk of the introduction of a unicameral assembly immediately after the plebiscite was idle gossip. "Some politicians are just spreading rumours, to make the situation worse," Januazkov told IWPR.

He said Akaev had made his position clear, that the current legislative structure would remain in place until the end of his term in three years' time.

The Kyrgyz opposition, however, is certain the authorities are pushing loyal deputies to press for the dissolution of the present parliament once the new constitution is passed.

"No one doubts that the authorities will get the result they desire (in the referendum)," Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, leader of the opposition group Kyrgyzstan. " After this, things will be done in such a way that the current assembly structure will be dissolved - we have experience of this sort of thing."

Akaev has indeed been down this road before. In 1994, after the first post-independence constitution was adopted, a boycott of parliament by pro-government deputies succeeded in getting it suspended.

The move was an apparent attempt to silence opposition deputies who had been calling for an investigation into alleged government corruption.

"The current situation is reminiscent of 1994. Then as now, the authorities also assured deputies and society that the parliament's authority would be preserved, but in the end the authorities got rid of legislators by suspending the assembly," journalist Alym Toktomushev recalled.

Commentators note that pro-government deputies are seeking work in executive bodies or public organisations, indirectly confirming the coming changes.

For instance, head of the parliamentary committee for human rights Oksana Malevanaya and deputy Turdubek Chekiev are standing for the position of deputy ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan.

"It is well known that Chekiev and Malevanaya have close relatives in government circles, and there's probably a very good reason that they have decided to exchange their deputy positions for the less prestigious job of deputy ombudsman," said commentator Burulkan Sarygulova.

Ironically, pro-government deputies have expressed unease about the anticipated changes - and not because some might lose their jobs.

Assembly speaker Abdygany Erkebaev said dissolution of the current parliament is sure to aggravate the already tense internal political situation in Kyrgyzstan. "You can't take another risk and play dangerous games," he said.

Isa Tokoev, the head of the assembly, agreed, "Our country has not yet got over the shocks of last year which were caused by the Aksy tragedy. Now we need stability like we need oxygen. To achieve this we must not create grounds for new conflicts."

Clashes between police and demonstrators in the town of Aksy last year, in which several people were killed, led to months of turbulence in the south as protesters demanded punishment of those responsible.

The protests forced Akaev to agree to relinquish some of his enormous powers and share authority with parliament and the government through constitutional reforms.

Concerned that his authority might be weakened, the president subsequently sought to withdraw some of his earlier concessions.

But in the last couple of days, under pressure from the international community and local civil society groups, he seems to have had second thoughts, agreeing to restore a number of pledges he'd made, such as the withdrawal his absolute veto.

Sultan Jumagulov is a BBC stringer.