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International Movement of Parliamentarians for Democracy
Advancing Democracy:
Advancing Democracy is the bi-monthly newsletter of the International Movement of Parliamentarians for Democracy highlighting democratic developments around the world of particular interest to parliamentarians. We hope the information found in this newsletter will be helpful to parliamentarians seeking to strengthen the promotion of democracy in your country and globally. We welcome any suggestions you may have for content in future issues of Advancing Democracy. Please send your suggestion to Tiffany Lynch at jamesb@ned.org. Feel free to share the newsletter with colleagues and encourage them to join the network. More information about the IMPD and how to become a member can be found at www.wmd.org/impd/main.html.
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Table of Contents I. Developments in Democracy
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EGYPT
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has asked parliament to change the constitution to allow multiple candidates in presidential polls. The surprise announcement followed US and domestic pressure for reform in the Arab world's most populous nation. Mubarak said the move was aimed at bringing the law "in line with this stage of our nation's history". There will be a referendum on the proposal before September's presidential poll. Currently, Egypt holds presidential referendums on a single candidate approved by parliament. Mubarak's National Democratic Party has dominated the assembly since political parties were restored in the 1970s and he was expected to use the system to secure a fifth six-year term in September. In Egypt, opposition and civil society activists have recently been calling for political reform. Opposition activists welcomed the announcement, though some were skeptical about President Mubarak's motives.
LEBANON
Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned Monday evening after a day of angry street protests against his government and its chief supporter, the Syrian government. The surprise announcement was the most dramatic sign yet of the government's instability following the murder of Rafiq Hariri, who had preceded Karami as prime minister. Karami had asked parliament to cast an up-or-down vote on his government in the next few days. He was widely expected to win the no-confidence motion, given that pro-Syrian members control roughly two-thirds of the 128-seat parliament. But his resignation before the vote reflected the bitterness of the session and the passions of the crowd outside, who are engaged in what they describe as the red-and-white revolution against the Syrian-backed government and Syria's deep-seated presence in Lebanon. Karami rose at the end of the session to announce his resignation, although his cabinet is expected to remain in place in a caretaker capacity through the parliamentary elections scheduled for later this spring. President Emile Lahoud, a Maronite Christian who once headed the Lebanese army, will name a new prime minister in the days ahead after consulting with the parliament.
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi men voted in a municipal election in the capital Riyadh, the first stage in an unprecedented nationwide vote as the absolute monarchy inches toward reform. The polls, from which women are excluded, are part of a cautious program of reform introduced by de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah. He has faced calls for change at home and from Saudi Arabia's main ally, the United States, after the Sept. 11 attacks which were carried out by mainly Saudi hijackers. Critics say the elections are largely a cosmetic response in which few are taking part. But diplomats say the vote does at least create a mechanism for Saudis to channel concerns. Voters are deciding just half the members of municipal councils, whose powers are likely to be limited. The government will appoint the other council members. Women cannot vote and few men registered in the Riyadh area -- just 149,000 in a city of over four million people -- reflecting skepticism that the councils will make much difference to daily life. More than 1,800 candidates are competing in the Riyadh area and some have spent millions of dollars on campaigns. They range from businessmen, tribal figures and security chiefs to academics and officials, whose enthusiasm has contrasted sharply with widespread voter apathy. The Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal recently announced that women may be permitted to vote in the next round of municipal elections in the Kingdom.
WEST BANK/GAZA
The Palestinian Parliament overwhelmingly approved a new cabinet composed mainly of professionals rather than politicians, ending several days of crisis and marking a break with the Yasser Arafat era. All but seven of the 24 cabinet members were newcomers, many of them qualified specialists with doctorates in fields ranging from education to electrical engineering and economics. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and the deputy prime minister, Nabil Shaath, formerly the foreign minister, were among the few who survived a radical pruning of Arafat loyalists that strengthened the reform-minded president, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has pledged to make Palestinian public life more open and effective, reinforcing efforts to secure peace with Israel. The outcome reflected a setback for Qurei, who had started the week by proposing a cabinet list drawn predominantly from the old guard that flourished under Arafat and was widely seen as corrupt and nepotistic. Legislators protested vehemently, forcing Qurei during three days of wrangling to include new faces. Legislators approved the new cabinet by 54 to 10, with four abstentions, voting by a show of hands in a curtained chamber dominated by a portrait of Arafat, who died in November after overseeing Palestinian politics for decades.
IRAQ
Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says he is forming a new coalition to oppose the Shia alliance that won last month's election. His announcement came a day after Daawa Party chief Ibrahim Jaafari was named as the Shia list's candidate for the position of prime minister. Mr. Allawi said he was forming a broad coalition with other minority groups that won seats in the election. Despite a slick and well-funded electoral campaign, Mr. Allawi's party, the Iraqi List, secured only 40 seats in the transitional parliament. An alliance of Kurdish parties has 77 deputies. The United Iraqi Alliance, which won 140 seats in the 275-member interim parliament, named Mr. Jaafari as its candidate for prime minister. A two-thirds majority, or 182 votes, is needed to confirm the appointment of the prime minister, which will be the most powerful position in the transitional government whose job is to write a new constitution for Iraq. Correspondents say Mr. Jaafari is a popular choice, as he is seen as less corrupt and as having a good relationship with Iran but not as close to the Iranian government as some other Shia politicians. As UIA candidate, he also has the backing of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential religious leader.
TOGO
President Faure Gnassingbe, facing mounting international pressure since the Togo's military installed him as leader three weeks ago, announced he was stepping down and would seek the presidency in April elections. Gnassingbe resigned just hours after accepting his party's nomination for the presidential bid. Parliament later met in a special session and named Deputy Speaker Bonfoh Abbass to serve as interim president until an elected leader takes office. Gnassingbe had been under growing pressure from the United States, the United Nations and West African leaders to resign since he was installed Feb. 5 after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled the country for 38 years and was Africa's longest-serving leader. His earlier refusal to step down had prompted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to impose sanctions on the government of Togo, including an arms embargo and a travel ban. The African Union announced it was joining in the sanctions and suspended the country from all AU activities.
UGANDA
The Ugandan government has announced the new political roadmap ahead of elections early next year. It includes a broad referendum on whether to return to a system of multi-party politics. In an attempt to counter divisions after years of war, parties have been severely restricted since President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986. But as the political parties prepare themselves for the 2006 election, the tension is rising. Currently, the Ugandan parliament is debating a constitution amendment bill which contains numerous proposals - from Swahili being declared the second official language to the issue of dual nationality. There are also hotter topics - like the two-term limit on the presidency and whether a return to multi-party politics is a good idea. All the proposals have been heaped together in what is known as an omnibus bill, and having debated the issues, the MPs must vote on the bill by the end of April. Causing the sharpest increases in blood pressure around the country is the proposal to lift the two-term limit on the presidency. President Museveni will have served two terms by next year, although his total time at the helm will have been 20 years.
NEPAL
King Gyanendra has promised to restore democracy in three years, and has insisted that he was upholding democratic principles when he took power this month. In his first comments to the media here since he dismissed the government and declared a state of emergency on Feb. 1, King Gyanendra also urged Maoist rebels to join peace talks and shrugged off the suspension of military aid by India and Britain. At the same time, he pleaded for international support to crush the Maoist revolt, in which thousands of people have died. Britain, India and the United States, which has said it too was weighing a suspension of military aid, have all demanded that the king restore democracy. The king also suspended civil rights and installed a monarchist cabinet. Dozens of opposition politicians have been arrested or have gone underground, and the media have been strictly censored since the takeover. Gyanendra has said he was forced to take action because of corruption and the former government's failure to stop the insurgency. Analysts have warned that Nepal stands little chance of defeating the insurgents without foreign military aid. The rebels, meanwhile, have blockaded roads to disrupt food and fuel supplies since the takeover. They have focused on the 200-kilometer, or 125-mile, highway that connects Katmandu to the country's interior and leads to India.
MALDIVES
Police arrested 20 opposition party supporters during the Maldives' parliamentary election in January, a vote critics denounced as rigged, accusing the government of linking aid for tsunami survivors to favorable votes. The archipelago nation held the elections three weeks late, a postponement caused by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed at least 82 people in the Maldives and crushed homes and businesses nationwide. In the absence of a multiparty system, nearly 150 individual candidates contested the vote for parliament's 42 seats in the island chain, where the president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has ruled with an iron first since 1978. Government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said the detainees were supporters of the exiled opposition Maldives Democratic Party who tried to take a video camera into a polling booth in violation of election rules. Voters in the Maldives have cast their ballots in a general election postponed as a result of last month's tsunami. No political parties are allowed and nearly 150 candidates stood as independents for the 42-seat assembly. Reformist candidates have complained of irregularities, including allegations that the government threatened voters with withholding reconstruction aid. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Academics and members of the appointed consultative council in the United Arab Emirates have called for elections in the Gulf state. Professor Abd al-Khaliq Abd Allah of the UAE University told the English-language daily Kaleej Times that when millions of Arabs in Palestine, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have gone to the polls, the UAE cannot continue to lag behind. Fellow member Muhammad bin Ali al-Nagbi told the same newspaper he would support elections as long as they were decided from within and were not imposed by external pressure. "Our country is now the only member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which has yet to catch up with the political opening up under way in the Arab world. Even countries we thought were incapable of political change, such as Saudi Arabia, are now ahead of us," said Atiq Daka, a professor of political science at the UAE University. "We need not just municipal and legislative elections, but also transparency in terms of freedom of expression and total independence of the judiciary," said Abd Allah Shamsi, also a political science professor. Such outspoken remarks are a novelty in the UAE, where there are no elections and no political parties - only the FNC set up in 1972.
Kyrgyzstan, February 27
Early results from parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan show nearly two-thirds of the new parliament's seats will have to be decided in run-off elections. In most constituencies no candidate received the absolute majority of votes required to win outright. This means the parliament's shape, and the extent of its support for long-serving Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, remains unclear. The final tally of deputies will be decided in polls in mid-March.
Tajikistan, February 27
The party of Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov has won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections. The central election commission said that the People's Democratic Party won 80% of the vote, with 88% of the electorate turned out. The results mean the party will hold almost all the seats in parliament. But international monitors said the election failed to meet acceptable standards, calling it disappointing. The main runner up, the Islamic Party, won just 10% of the votes, as did the communist party.
Founded in February 2003, the IMPD is an international coalition of parliamentarians dedicated to the defense and promotion of democracy around the world. Affiliated with the World Movement for Democracy, its current membership is 227 parliamentarians from 33 countries.
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