As many have surely noticed, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament has again amended the constitution. This time, they have opted to give the president back the powers they stripped from him. The opposition claims the amendments are illegal and plans to challenge them.
I pretty much agree with Yulia’s take on the matter. Parliamentarians that were so recently eager to take a stand against the president had all their strength go out of them when faced with the prospect of parliament being dissolved. The two decisions to amend are fairly consistent. The first reflected parliamentarians’ wishes to boost their power relative to the president, and the second reflected their desire to hold on to whatever power they could salvage.
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Nathan Hamm – author of 2039 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.