Field Reports
AZERBAIJAN: ONE PARTY, TWO CANDIDATES
As the presidential elections in Azerbaijan heat up, the political scene becomes more and more interesting. Last week, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party created a controversy, which many domestic observers characterized as a \"pathetic situation\". On June 28, an “initiative group” gathered in Nakhichevan, the home of President Aliyev, and nominated his son Ilham Aliyev for the presidency. The current election code allows candidates to be nominated not only from political parties and blocks of political parties, but also from initiative groups numbering one hundred or more people.
CABINET RESHUFFLE IN KAZAKHSTAN DEFUSES POLITICAL CRISIS
On June 11, Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov publicly announced his resignation. The news hardly came as a big surprise to home observers who were closely following dramatic events that lead to intense confrontation between government and parliament over the much-debated land privatization issue.
AZERI OPPOSITION ATTEMPTS TO UNITE PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
As Azerbaijan’s October 15 Presidential election approaches, four leading opposition candidates are trying to overcome personal differences and launch a common candidate – an issue crucial to their possible success. An upcoming visit to Washington may crystallize this development.
CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION SET UP IN AZERBAIJAN
The Central Election Commission in Azerbaijan has been set up by an extraordinary session of parliament, as well as a detailed schedule of the Presidential Elections to be held on October 15. Despite protesting the structure of the CEC and the Electoral Code, the opposition is participating.
HIZB-UT-TAHRIR IN KYRGYZSTAN STEPS INTO PHASE THREE
The Secretive Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement is increasingly seen as a threat to the Kyrgyz government. Nothing seems to stop the movement’s growing influence, and it is now feared that Hizb-ut-Tahrir has begun a process of infiltrating government agencies.
AZERBAIJANI-IRANIAN RELATIONS ENDANGERED AFTER RUSSIAN PUBLICATION
The already tense relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have again become the focus of this week\'s political agenda in the region after an article in the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta\'s on May 29. In this article, the newspaper claimed that the U.S. Administration had already secured the Azerbaijani government\'s approval for the usage of the latter\'s territory for a possible attack on Iran.
TURKMENISTAN: IMPLICATIONS OF DUAL CITIZENSHIP TERMINATION
President Niyazov\'s latest decree of April 22, 2003 stipulated the complete cancellation of dual citizenship between Turkmenistan and Russia, and put an end to the ongoing confusion over citizens\' travels to Russia. However, this decree keeps causing unexpected results by creating uneasiness within and consolidation of the opposition abroad.
NEW ELECTION CODE PASSED IN AZERBAIJAN
On May 27, the Azerbaijani parliament passed the law on the adoption of a new elections code, in its third and final reading, with a vote of 95 to 5. According to this document, the provisions of the Election Code (EC) touching upon the formation of election commissions at all levels would come into force after the new parliamentarian elections in 2005.
KYRGYZSTAN CLOSES BORDERS WITH CHINA
The Kyrgyzstan government closed its borders with China to prevent the possible penetration of SARS into the country. The Kyrgyz authorities have heeded the request of the Health Care Minister, Mitalip Mamytov, who appealed to the Prime Minister to shut its borders with China. Earlier, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan had done the same. Physicians say Kyrgyzstan has a damp, hot, subtropical climate, which means great conditions for the spread of SARS.
KAZAKHSTAN CLOSES THE DOOR TO CHINA AS SARS PANIC SPREADS
At first, Kazakh authorities seemed to be merely stunned by the news of the rapid spread of a hitherto unknown deadly disease in China. They were too slow to introduce necessary precaution measures to prevent the severe acute respiratory syndrome from popping up in the country, which shares 1700 kilometer long border with China.
