Constitutional Bill Retains Strong Presidency
Constitutional Bill Retains Strong Presidency
A draft constitution put forward by Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiev for a national referendum leaves the balance of power with the head of state rather than parliament, according to most NBCentralAsia analysts.
In an annual address to the nation on September 19, President Bakiev announced that a referendum will be held on a new constitution on October 21, and he put forward a new version for consideration.
The move follows a September 14 ruling by Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Court that the latest version of the constitution, dating from December 2006, and also its immediate predecessor adopted the previous month, were both null and void. Kyrgyzstan therefore reverts – for the time being at least – to the constitution of 2003.
The Constitutional Court judges ruled that amendments to the rules of parliament, which were introduced especially so that legislators could pass constitutional amendments without referring them to the court, were not legally valid.
If Bakiev’s draft document is approved by the referendum, the current parliament, elected in early 2005, could be dissolved by the end of the year to make way for a new one.
The proposed constitution draft retains a major change from the November and December 2006 documents by increasing the number of seats in parliament from 75 to 90. However, whereas those versions introduced the concept of proportional representation, rather than the old first-past-the-post system, for just half the seats, the latest draft would see all seats filled by the new method, which is based on party lists.
If one political party wins over half of the 90 seats, it can name a prime minister and a cabinet, with approval from the president.
The new draft says the president appoints a prime minister nominated by parliament. The prime minister then comes up with a cabinet which the president again approves. The president also names the members of the National Security Council, and appoints and dismisses local judges.
Parliament approves judges for the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court, the prosecutor general, the National Bank chief and the head of the Central Election Committee, all of whose names are proposed by the president. Judges in the two high courts and the head of the national Audit Chamber can only be dismissed by the head of state if parliament approves.
But the president has wide-ranging powers to dismiss other officials without consulting the legislature. These include the prime minister, cabinet members, the prosecutor general, and the National Bank and Central Election Committee heads.
Gulnara Iskakova, a constitutional law expert who is acting professor at the American University of Central Asia, says the document now being proposed is not acceptable for a democratic state. She says the mechanism by which the president can sack the entire government is a carbon-copy of the 2003 constitution, passed when Bakiev’s predecessor Askar Akaev was in power.
“What’s the point of having a government formed by political parties when it can be dismissed by the president?” she asked.
Iskakova also points to the important detail that members of parliament can lose their seats if the political party they belong to ceases to enjoy legal recognition. This would make it possible to get rid of troublesome deputies by refusing to grant their party a renewal of their registration with the justice ministry – something all parties require to be allowed to stand in elections.
“This new draft constitution is aimed at creating a super-presidential system, since the president has all the leverage when it comes to appointments and dismissals,” said Asiya Sasykbaeva, the head of the Interbilim rights group.
This view is shared by Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, who argues that the new document will not allow parliament to act as counterbalance in the power structure.
“I think this constitution is inferior to its predecessors from the point of view of democracy,” he said.
According to political scientist Shairbek Juraev, if the new constitution is approved, it will impose a presidential form of government, however people want to dress it up.
Assuming that no one party wins 50 per cent of the seats in parliament in an election, the president can ask any party to nominate a prime minister. Yet as Juraev put it, “the whole idea behind shifting to a proportional system is that the government must have the support of parliament”.
Moreover, he said, the parties’ room for manoeuvre is further restricted by the fact that there is no mechanism for them to build parliamentary coalitions in cases where none of them has an individual majority.
(NBCentralAsia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region)
In an annual address to the nation on September 19, President Bakiev announced that a referendum will be held on a new constitution on October 21, and he put forward a new version for consideration.
The move follows a September 14 ruling by Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Court that the latest version of the constitution, dating from December 2006, and also its immediate predecessor adopted the previous month, were both null and void. Kyrgyzstan therefore reverts – for the time being at least – to the constitution of 2003.
The Constitutional Court judges ruled that amendments to the rules of parliament, which were introduced especially so that legislators could pass constitutional amendments without referring them to the court, were not legally valid.
If Bakiev’s draft document is approved by the referendum, the current parliament, elected in early 2005, could be dissolved by the end of the year to make way for a new one.
The proposed constitution draft retains a major change from the November and December 2006 documents by increasing the number of seats in parliament from 75 to 90. However, whereas those versions introduced the concept of proportional representation, rather than the old first-past-the-post system, for just half the seats, the latest draft would see all seats filled by the new method, which is based on party lists.
If one political party wins over half of the 90 seats, it can name a prime minister and a cabinet, with approval from the president.
The new draft says the president appoints a prime minister nominated by parliament. The prime minister then comes up with a cabinet which the president again approves. The president also names the members of the National Security Council, and appoints and dismisses local judges.
Parliament approves judges for the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court, the prosecutor general, the National Bank chief and the head of the Central Election Committee, all of whose names are proposed by the president. Judges in the two high courts and the head of the national Audit Chamber can only be dismissed by the head of state if parliament approves.
But the president has wide-ranging powers to dismiss other officials without consulting the legislature. These include the prime minister, cabinet members, the prosecutor general, and the National Bank and Central Election Committee heads.
Gulnara Iskakova, a constitutional law expert who is acting professor at the American University of Central Asia, says the document now being proposed is not acceptable for a democratic state. She says the mechanism by which the president can sack the entire government is a carbon-copy of the 2003 constitution, passed when Bakiev’s predecessor Askar Akaev was in power.
“What’s the point of having a government formed by political parties when it can be dismissed by the president?” she asked.
Iskakova also points to the important detail that members of parliament can lose their seats if the political party they belong to ceases to enjoy legal recognition. This would make it possible to get rid of troublesome deputies by refusing to grant their party a renewal of their registration with the justice ministry – something all parties require to be allowed to stand in elections.
“This new draft constitution is aimed at creating a super-presidential system, since the president has all the leverage when it comes to appointments and dismissals,” said Asiya Sasykbaeva, the head of the Interbilim rights group.
This view is shared by Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, who argues that the new document will not allow parliament to act as counterbalance in the power structure.
“I think this constitution is inferior to its predecessors from the point of view of democracy,” he said.
According to political scientist Shairbek Juraev, if the new constitution is approved, it will impose a presidential form of government, however people want to dress it up.
Assuming that no one party wins 50 per cent of the seats in parliament in an election, the president can ask any party to nominate a prime minister. Yet as Juraev put it, “the whole idea behind shifting to a proportional system is that the government must have the support of parliament”.
Moreover, he said, the parties’ room for manoeuvre is further restricted by the fact that there is no mechanism for them to build parliamentary coalitions in cases where none of them has an individual majority.
(NBCentralAsia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region)
