Blogging the democratic revolution
Don’t give up on Kyrgyzstan just yet! Gateway Pundit initially brought the story to our attention. “The authorities are losing control of the situation. Current developments in southern Kyrgyzstan, where a rally has been going on since March 4, suggest that not only the opposition, but also the people want change in the authorities,” said Otunbayeva. “The opposition has ample strength and opportunity to assume leadership of the popular movement. But we want to tackle these problems legally,” she said. … The Kyrgyz parliament is preparing to gather for an emergency session on March 10, Zeina Kurmanov, leader of the…
Three thousand protestors in Jalalabad have seized a government building and are demanding next week’s parliamentary election runoffs be free and transparent. More than half of the seats in parliament were forced into the runoffs, so this is big.
Gateway Pundit has been following elections in Kyrgyzstan as well, and note unrest in the south over fraud, along with violations of people being bought off. Make sure to read it over. In addition to that, a grenade was aimed at an opposition leader, but it did not succeed. But read this: BISHKEK, March 3 (Reuters) – Assailants threw a grenade into the empty apartment of a prominent Kyrgyz opposition leader on Thursday, causing no casualties, in an attack both opposition and authorities accused each other of staging. The blast occurred days after the first of two rounds of a…
Senator John McCain, my senator in Arizona, issued a statement on the recent elections in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. And it was the right oneto make.
Nathan has a bunch of follow up news to the recent election there. Some are saying that democracy is on the march there as well!
Kyrgyzstan is facing a run-off after a majority of seats failed to acquire an absolute majority of the votes: MOSCOW. Feb. 28. — A majority of the seats in Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections Sunday were forced into a second round of voting when the contests failed to produce absolute majorities for candidates, according to preliminary results released Monday in the capital, Bishkek. That leaves the Central Asian republic to face another period of high political tension around the March 13 runoffs. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Monday the vote “fell short” of international standards for democratic elections,…
I emailed Nathan over at The Argus what he thought about the lack of protests, or anything for that matter, in regards to the Tajik elections. Here is his insight: I think the thing is that Kyrgyzstan is kind of deceptive. Akayev has run the place more or less like a normal country, and people have gotten a taste for the comparative freedom they’ve enjoyed. It’s hard to describe, but the country struck me as incredible after I’d been in Uzbekistan for about a year. People are laid back, all kinds of products are available, and you can get margaritas!…
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a great primer on the events there. Here is the first, second, and third parts in the series. Make sure to check out the RFE/RL feature page on the election. Nathan also has a huge roundup. This article explains procedure for monitors, and while the headline says there are no violations, this says differently: BISHKEK. Feb 27 (Interfax) – A Kyrgyz opposition leader said violations have been reported in Sunday????????s parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan. ???????Reports have been arriving since the morning about flagrant violations of election regulations and about the use of administrative pressure during…
This will be a post updated continuously through Sunday. I am going to sleep right now and will begin when I wake up. until then, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a great primer on the events there. Here is part one, two, three, and four. And make sure to check out RFE/RL’s feature page on Tajikistan. There is apparently high voter turnout already: Prague, 27 February 2005 — Voter turnout at polling stations in Tajikistan early today was reported to be higher than during parliamentary elections in 2000. In some areas, reports say voters were lining up at polling station…
Nathan has got today’s roundup posted. Along with some cool buttons I’m going to ad to the side bar.
The elections aren’t for a while, but. . . ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER DOES FOREIGN POLICY U-TURN National Accord Party (AMK) Chairman Artashes Geghamian told a party conference in Yerevan on 19 February that the United States “must be the main pillar of democratization and strengthening” of Armenia, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported. By contrast, during the 2003 presidential election campaign, Geghamian had argued for closer relations with Russia and Armenia’s accession to the Russia-Belarus Union. Geghamian finished in third place in the first round with some 17 percent of the vote. Geghamian also announced on 19 February that the AMK will…
Nathan has got the news roundup for all of you. The parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan are on February 27. Luckily, that is a Sunday, which means I will have plenty of time to be posting on it as well. If there’s anything the tin-pot despots there know, it is when to pick a good day for rigged elections! I don’t even think I have to say that Russia is backing the current regime. UPDATE: More on the Rainbow of Revolutions from Aussiegirl. Here’s my favorite quote from the article she posted: Moscow has been careful to appear impartial this time,…
Nathan has a news roundup accompanying why he really likes India as both a trade and strategic political partner for the United States. I have some of my own kind thoughts on India as an emerging democratic regional power.
Nathan’s weekend edition is up, and PORA is tranforming itself into a permanent think-tank. Vladyslav Kaskiv is one of the leaders of the Pora movement, whose demonstrations ???????? often laced with biting humor ???????? became a memorable feature of those exuberant winter days. Pora drew its inspiration from pro-democracy youth movements in Serbia and Georgia that also helped topple authoritarian regimes. Kaskiv told RFE/RL he and his colleagues planned to institutionalize their experience by setting up an international center in Kyiv to offer assistance and practical advice to democracy advocates throughout the region. ???????We are now in a very active…
Nathan has got today’s update up with what’s going on there. And apparently Uzbekistan is developing a parliamentary opposition: Asliddin Rustamov, leader of the parliamentary faction of the People????????s Democratic Party, said at a press conference here on Wednesday that their faction regarded itself as the left wing of the political forces, represented in parliament, which has a different opinion on some aspects of the reforms implemented in Uzbekistan. Specifically, it believes that their social effectiveness should be improved. The faction ???????will consistently express and defend the interests of working people and of the vulnerable sections of the population. It…
Today’s — er, yesterday’s update is online. You may have noticed my nap ran a little long, so I’m not really sure what day it is yet.
Nathan has got his Valentine’s Day Edition (well, maybe not) of Election and Democracy Watch up. Check it out.
Nathan has today’s news update for what’s coming out of Central Asia.
Nathan has posted his daily roundup today about what’s going on in Kyrgyzstan.
Nathan Hamm has posted his daily article on polical happenings in Russia’s “near abroad.” Democracy is on crack down.
I noticed a trackback on one of my posts by Winds of Change and followed the link. Apparently, Nathan from The Argus does a monthly roundup of all the news from the Caucasus over there. Make sure to check that out. As I have noted before, love stuff like this.
Nathan reports that the media has received its orders from the goverment to show the shining light on them and give as little coverage to the opposition as possible. Who would have guessed?
Nathan is posting daily entries in the elections in Central Asia. Check out his update for today as well as yesterday.
I never thought that I’d see it on Instapundit before checking my blogroll, but Nathan has some pictures of demonstrators showing orange at protests in their respective countries. Alright, back to the game. I couldn’t wait to post that, but no more for today!
Make sure to check out Nathan, who is posting a lot on the elections in Central Asia. Right now he has a post up covering what is going on in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Lots of thoughts on the odds of a Lemon Revolution as well.