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Kyrgyzstan

Central Asia: don’t call dictators democrats

By Demdigest on June 1, 2010

Kyrgyzstan’s recent regime change is more likely to expand Russia’s influence than generate any democratic domino effect.
“Illusions that Kyrgyzstan can be the bastion of Central Asian democracy should be dropped,” writes the Atlantic Council’s Borut Grgic:
Anyone who has had any dealings with the Kyrgyz Parliament should know that the system of party politics is a [read full story]

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Limits to SCO’s authoritarian solidarity

By Demdigest on May 18, 2010

For a grouping often portrayed as an autocrats’ support network, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been “surprisingly disengaged” from the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, writes Richard Weitz, a senior fellow at Washington’s Hudson Institute.
The organization has been portrayed as an authoritarian international which, while largely focused on security issues, also served as a supporters’ club or [read full story]

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Kyrgyzstan: US can seize moral high ground

By Demdigest on May 4, 2010

The United States has a strategic interest in promoting democracy in Kyrgyzstan, writes Kathleen Collins. The recent uprising against President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s corrupt and autocratic regime presents Washington with “a unique opportunity to promote democracy, stability, and economic reform in a predominantly Muslim country, while also preserving a US base critical to the Afghan war.”
The [read full story]

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Why Kyrgyz Citizens Turned…

By Michael Allen on April 12, 2010

Kyrgyzstan’s former President Kurmanbek Bakiev was never really committed to democracy, says Bakyt Beshimov, a former opposition MP. His opposition to Bakiev’s nepotism and corruption led the regime to target Beshimov for assassination: Cases like Beshimov’s offered “real, tangible stories of corruption” that turned Kyrgyz citizens against Bakiev’s rule, Miriam Lanskoy, senior program officer for [read full story]

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Western democracy unsuitable for Kyrgyzstan?

By Michael Allen on March 23, 2010

Five years after the democratic ‘color revolution’ that brought him to power, Kyrgyzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev today declared Western-style democracy inappropriate for  the former-Soviet state as pro-democracy protesters clashed with police in the capital, Bishkek.
A corporatist model of “consultative democracy,” based on dialogues with social groups, is more fitting to the country’s traditions than one [read full story]

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Jobs & Opportunities

By Michael Allen on November 6, 2009

Rights & Democracy’s International conference on Sharia and family law reform
Rights & Democracy, the Canadian democracy assistance group, is searching for two speakers to present papers at an international conference on Sharia and family law reform in Muslim countries that we are hosting next February in Kabul, Afghanistan. We are looking for speakers with [read full story]

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Kyrgyz poll marred by abuses

By Michael Allen on July 30, 2009

Further to yesterday’s posting on the Kyrgyzstan election, “massive ballot box stuffing, often by members of election commissions”, government officials pressuring voters, and a surprising number of absentee ballots were just a few of the poll’s irregularities and abuses identified by the Alliance of Civic Organizations, a partner of the National Democratic Institute.
The poll was [read full story]

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Kyrgyz election reflects worsening regional environment

By Michael Allen on July 29, 2009

Police today broke up opposition demonstrations protesting the outcome of Kyrgyzstan’s recent presidential election which saw incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev claim reelection with 76.4 percent of the vote.
The poll was far from free and fair, observers confirm. Despite concerns that criticizing the poll might jeopardize delicate negotiations over U.S. access to a strategically vital base in [read full story]

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