Parties Try to Carve Out Role in New Political Landscape
Parties Try to Carve Out Role in New Political Landscape
An association representing 12 political parties in Kyrgyzstan is drafting legislation to define how parties should operate in the new proportional representation system. The proposal should help nail down some of the practicalities associated with the change.
On July 2, an umbrella group called the Parliament of Political Parties told the AKIpress news agency that it was drafting proposed amendments to party legislation in response to the revised constitution adopted last December.
According to the constitution, half of the 90 seats in parliament will be elected from party lists. If one party wins more than half of the “party” seats, it will be able to nominate a prime minister for final approval bvy the president.
The Parliament of Political Parties and works on political party development issues including relevant legislation.
The association wants to change the law so that it would take 50 signatures instead of the current ten to set up a new political party, and to require them to have at least 5,000 members in total, and 200 in every region of Kyrgyzstan, before they are eligible to field candidates in elections.
The proposals are already with parliament, have been reviewed both in committee and in hearings.
According to the association’s coordinator Roza Aknazarova, who heads the El Yntymagy party, the grouping also wants a more specific definition of party funding laws, meaning that only parties which get four or more per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections would be eligible for campaign funding from the state.
Member of parliament Iskhak Masaliev takes a more cautious view of giving government funding to political parties, saying it is a luxury that the country cannot afford at the moment. “We’ll get there one day, but not now,” he said.
Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, disagrees, arguing instead that state funding for parties works in the interests of democracy.
“When the state funds political parties, it funds democracy. If the state doesn’t fund political parties, the oligarchs will do so,” he said.
Ibraimov takes the view that legislation on the role of parties should be geared towards allowing them to operate freely and restricting the state’s capacity to control them and interfere in their activities.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
Кыргызские партии готовятся к своей новой роли
On July 2, an umbrella group called the Parliament of Political Parties told the AKIpress news agency that it was drafting proposed amendments to party legislation in response to the revised constitution adopted last December.
According to the constitution, half of the 90 seats in parliament will be elected from party lists. If one party wins more than half of the “party” seats, it will be able to nominate a prime minister for final approval bvy the president.
The Parliament of Political Parties and works on political party development issues including relevant legislation.
The association wants to change the law so that it would take 50 signatures instead of the current ten to set up a new political party, and to require them to have at least 5,000 members in total, and 200 in every region of Kyrgyzstan, before they are eligible to field candidates in elections.
The proposals are already with parliament, have been reviewed both in committee and in hearings.
According to the association’s coordinator Roza Aknazarova, who heads the El Yntymagy party, the grouping also wants a more specific definition of party funding laws, meaning that only parties which get four or more per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections would be eligible for campaign funding from the state.
Member of parliament Iskhak Masaliev takes a more cautious view of giving government funding to political parties, saying it is a luxury that the country cannot afford at the moment. “We’ll get there one day, but not now,” he said.
Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, disagrees, arguing instead that state funding for parties works in the interests of democracy.
“When the state funds political parties, it funds democracy. If the state doesn’t fund political parties, the oligarchs will do so,” he said.
Ibraimov takes the view that legislation on the role of parties should be geared towards allowing them to operate freely and restricting the state’s capacity to control them and interfere in their activities.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
Кыргызские партии готовятся к своей новой роли
