Political Turbulence Reaches Parliament

Some opposition members of the Kyrgyz parliament say they are ready to dissolve the legislature if that will ease tensions with the authorities and the opposition, but NBCentralAsia commentators say such a move would only destabilise the situation further.



After a week-long opposition demonstration calling for early presidential elections, many hoped that a resolution could be found through a compromise on constitutional reform, and that parliament would play a key role in negotiating such an outcome.



But during a debate on April 17, pro-government and opposition parliamentarians came close to a fistfight over arguments about who was behind street fights that broke out at the weekend.



On April 14, an unidentified group of people attacked protesters in the centre of Bishkek. The opposition says the attackers – three of whom were detained by protesters, questioned and then turned over to the police – had been deliberately sent by the authorities to intimidate them.



Officials and other members of parliament deny the accusations, saying the three who were detained were innocent passers-by who had been picked on by the crowd. The police have charged a number of opposition supporters with behaving unlawfully towards the three.



After the turbulent scenes in parliament, pro-presidential member Kamchybek Tashiev said he and 29 other legislators would be boycotting debates on constitutional reform, and that the opposition should apologise to all three detained men.



On the same day, opposition deputies Bolot Sherniyazov and Melis Eshimkanov addressed the rally in central Bishkek and said they were ready to initiate the process for parliament to dissolve itself. Opposition parliamentarian Omurbek Babanov, who is in favour of holding talks with the authorities, told the AKIpress news agency that he too supports the plan.



Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, said that if parliament were dissolved, the opposition would have a stronger case for demanding an early presidential election. But he said that in reality, talk of dissolution is no more than a device to pressure the authorities.



If it happened, he said, the consequence would be a prolonged period of instability, and constitutional reform would grind to a halt.



Bakyt Beshimov, vice-president of the American University in Central Asia, argues that although dissolving parliament would not create in itself create stability, it would mean the future was “more clearly defined”, since in his view the current parliament is only making matters worse.



The deputy speaker of parliament, Tairbek Sarpashev, doubts that a motion to dissolve the legislature would win the required two-thirds majority.



Nor does he believe the country is ready for a new parliamentary election, since new legislation on political parties and amendments to the electoral code have not yet been passed.



Kanybek Imanaliev, a member of the opposition Movement for Reforms, said the proposal to dissolve parliament was made in the heat of the moment, and he thinks the institution still has a role to play by coming up with a compromise version of the constitution that satisfies both the authorities and the opposition.



“Adopting such a draft constitution could gradually stabilise the situation and encourage the opposition to give up its demand for an early presidential election,” he said.



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