Overview: Kyrgyzstan is a unitary presidential republic that began the post-Soviet era as the least authoritarian of the five Central Asian states. The constitution, which calls for three separate branches of government, has been amended several times to change the structure of the legislative branch. Beginning in the late 1990s, the regime of the thrice-elected President Oskar Akayev increasingly bypassed democratic processes, despite increasing protests. Constitutional changes concentrated power in the presidency, to the detriment of the legislative branch, and made removal of the president more difficult. The parliament has blocked some presidential proposals, but it has not been an effective check on executive power. The judicial branch was effectively under the control of the executive branch. In his election platform of mid-2005, provisional president Kurmanbek Bakiyev promised government reform to curb the power of the presidency, but Bakiyev’s new government included mainly established politicians. Significant regional political power centers exist, with a pronounced split between northern and southern provinces. In many cases, political loyalties still are defined by clan rather than party.
Executive Branch: The executive branch comprises the president, the prime minister, and a cabinet consisting of four deputy prime ministers, 12 ministers, and the heads of four national agencies, commissions, and committees. The prime minister is appointed by the president, subject to the approval of the parliament. The president also appoints the other cabinet members. Presidential power increased as the result of a 2003 referendum, whose procedures received international criticism. The president is directly elected to a five-year term, with a two-term limitation that was circumvented by Akayev in a 1998 referendum. In the early 2000s, Akayev’s informal power base among the business elite, younger politicians, and former allies eroded as he increasingly favored the clans of the north (his region) over those of the south. In early 2005, energized by manifestly unfair parliamentary elections, opposition demonstrations in the cities brought about Akayev’s abdication and resignation. His successor, former prime minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev, pledged in 2005 to restore some powers to the legislative branch. He retained most of the acting cabinet that he had selected on Akayev’s resignation. The choice of former security chief Feliks Kulov as prime minister symbolically united Kyrgyzstan’s opposing regions: Bakiyev is from the south, Kulov from the north.
Legislative Branch: Members of the unicameral, 75-member Supreme Council (Zhogorku Kenesh) are directly elected to five-year terms. In 2004 one of every 16 deputies in the Supreme Council was a woman. A referendum in 1998 substantially weakened the Supreme Council’s power to block legislative proposals of the president. In 2003 a referendum changed the legislature’s structure from bicameral to unicameral, after a referendum in 1994 had established a bicameral legislature in place of the much larger unicameral legislature that had been established by the 1993 constitution. Both changes aimed to increase presidential power at the expense of the legislative branch. Pursuant to the referendum of 2003, the disputed elections of early 2005 seated a new 75-member unicameral legislature. After his election in mid-2005, Bakiyev did not call for new parliamentary elections, despite the irregularities of the previous vote.
Judicial Branch: Although nominally independent, the judicial branch is substantially under the control of the president, who recommends appointments to both of the main judicial institutions: the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. (The constitutional amendments of 2003 abolished a third national court, the Supreme Court of Arbitration, awarding its role as arbiter of commercial disputes to the Supreme Court.) The Supreme Court is the highest appeals court for civil and criminal cases. The Constitutional Court rules on constitutional interpretations and on the validity of presidential elections. The members of those courts are elected to ten-year terms by the Supreme Council, after being nominated by the president. The president appoints judges to seven-year terms at the subnational levels. High-profile cases have shown the courts’ bias toward the executive branch. In 1998 the Constitutional Court ruled on a technicality that Akayev could stand for a third presidential term, contrary to the constitutional prohibition. In the early 2000s, criminal trials of opposition figures demonstrated substantial partisanship by the courts toward the executive branch.
Administrative Divisions: Kyrgyzstan is divided into seven provinces and the municipality of Bishkek, the capital.
Provincial and Local Government: Each province is headed by a governor (akim) who is appointed by the president. The provinces are divided into districts whose administrators are appointed by the central government. Rural communities, comprising up to 20 small settlements, are governed by directly elected mayors and councils.
Judicial and Legal System: Although the constitution provides for an independent judiciary, Kyrgyzstan’s court system is widely seen as under the influence of the prosecutor’s office. Low salaries make the bribery of judges commonplace. Most cases originate in local courts; they then can move via the appeals process to district or regional courts, with the Supreme Court the final court of appeals. Economic disputes and military cases are heard in specialized courts. The constitutional amendments of 2003 expanded the scope of the Supreme Court in civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings. Many protections of Western jurisprudence have not been incorporated into Kyrgyzstan’s system, which retains many features of the Soviet system. The right to counsel and the presumption of innocence of the accused are guaranteed by law but often not practiced.
Electoral System: A new electoral code signed in 2004 is characterized by international authorities as an improvement over the previous law but still failing to meet international standards. Suffrage is universal, and the minimum voting age is 18. Parliamentary and presidential elections are a two-stage process, with runoffs between the top two vote-getters for each geographically identified parliamentary seat. Third rounds sometimes are held. International monitors have identified substantial irregularities in the presidential election of 2000, referenda in 1998 and 2003, and the parliamentary elections of early 2005. Before the presidential election of 2000, the main opposition candidate, Feliks Kulov, was imprisoned. In that election, Akayev received 74 percent of the vote. Although in 2004 government and non-governmental groups began exerting some pressure to reduce the government’s traditional control of the electoral system, the prospects of opposition parties were hurt by the abolition in 2003 of party list seats in parliament and by election code changes in 2004. International and domestic monitors declared the special presidential election of July 2005 basically fair; turnout was estimated at 58 percent. Prior to Akayev’s resignation, the presidential election had been scheduled for October 2005.
Politics and Political Parties: In the 1990s, numerous political parties with a variety of agendas developed, but few had broad national followings. An exception is the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, an opponent of free-market economic reform, which in the parliamentary elections of 2000 gained 28 percent of the vote. In general, opposition parties have retained a high level of activity but were unable to form a united front against the Akayev regime; in the 1990s and early 2000s, major opposition parties formed several unstable coalitions. A major opposition bloc, For People's Power, was established in 2004. The abolition in 2003 of party list voting for parliament and the abolition of runoff elections hampered the election efforts of opposition parties. The resignation of President Akayev brought a fundamental realignment of parties.
Mass Media: Although the constitution guarantees freedom of the press and prohibits censorship, government restrictions exist. Competition among media outlets is skewed by heavy government support of pro-government newspapers and broadcast outlets. In the early 2000s, an increasing number of such outlets were controlled by individuals with ties to the government. One Bishkek radio station is owned by Akayev’s son-in-law. In 2003 some eight of Kyrgyzstan’s 25 to 30 newspapers and magazines were state-owned, and the state publishing house, Uchkun, was the major newspaper publisher in the country. Between 2002 and 2004, the government registered several independent newspapers and radio and television stations.
Foreign Relations: In the post-Soviet era, Kyrgyzstan has joined several regional organizations in an effort to improve its security and economic position. Among those organizations are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Because such organizations have not had the intended effect, Kyrgyzstan’s meaningful foreign relations have largely been bilateral. However, SCO membership assumed particular meaning for Kyrgyzstan in 2005 as the SCO, assuming a more active geopolitical role than previously, urged that U.S. troops leave Kyrgyzstan. Relations with Russia have remained a primary concern because Kyrgyzstan had been unusually dependent on the Soviet structure in security and economic matters. The rights of the technically valuable Russian minority have been a sensitive issue. After the posting of U.S. troops in Kyrgyzstan for the antiterrorist operation in Afghanistan in 2002, Akayev sought to balance that presence with ongoing Russian interests. The early policy of Akayev’s successor, Kurmanbek Bakiyev (elected July 2005), sought to retain that balance in the face of pressure from China and Russia to expel U.S. troops. However, relative U.S. influence diminished in September 2005 as Russia concluded a bilateral agreement with Kyrgyzstan. The agreement expands Russian military aid, arms sales, and aid in building energy infrastructure. Since 2000 tensions with Uzbekistan have increased because of disputes over the two countries’ fuel-for-power arrangement and Uzbekistan’s unilateral steps against cross-border terrorist organizations. Uzbekistan’s mining of the common border has brought complaints from Kyrgyzstan. Relations with China have improved steadily since 1991, as trade has flourished and border issues have been settled. Kyrgyzstan’s large population of Uyghur emigrants concerns China, however, because of separatism in China’s adjoining Xingjiang Province, from which they migrated.
Membership in International Organizations: Kyrgyzstan is a member of the following international organizations: the Asian Development Bank, Commonwealth of Independent States, Economic Cooperation Organization, Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), International Development Association, International Finance Corporation, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Organization for Migration, International Telecommunication Union, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Partnership for Peace (of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, United Nations, United Nations Committee on Trade and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Universal Postal Union, World Customs Organization, World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization, and World Trade Organization.
Major International Treaties: Among the multilateral treaties to which Kyrgyzstan is a signatory are the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, Geneva Conventions (1949), Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.