Kyrgyz parliament approves holding of referendum

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved the bill calling a referendum on the constitutional reforms on December 11, RIA Novosti reported.

Some 90 parliamentarians voted for the bill, while 15 MPs were against the bill.

Led by Kyrgyzstan’s president, a number of parties represented in the parliament put forward an initiative to amend the country’s current constitution which was adopted in the referendum after the coup in 2010.

In addition, the proposed constitutional amendments include provisions granting more powers to the cabinet and to leaders of parliamentary factions, as well as, allow combining the position of the prime minister, or deputy prime minister with MP activities.

The reforms would strengthen the powers of the prime minister, a move President Almazbek Atambayev's opponents say is aimed at extending his rule.

Constitutionally, Atambayev is limited to only one presidential term, which will come to an end in 2017. He had said in August, however, that he had no plans to become prime minister.

By law, the CEC recognizes the referendum valid if there have voted more than 30 percent of voters, included in the list of participants in the referendum. CEC recognizes the decision adopted at a referendum if more than a half of participants in the referendum have voted for it, according to the law.

In addition, the Central Election Commission declares the decision adopted at the referendum if for the imposed issue more than half of the participants who took part in elections voted.

The referendum is declared invalid if the election results were invalidated in a part of the areas where more than a third of participants of a plebiscite voted.

Kyrgyzstan is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament.

Kyrgyzstan has had three constitutions: the original 1993 post-independence document which was amended twice before and twice after the 2005 Tulip Revolution, a constitution passed by referendum in 2007, and the present constitution passed by referendum in 2010 after the second revolution.