Bloggers in Kyrgyzstan discuss the changes that the government is undergoing after the President Bakiev’s sudden dismissals and appointments of a whole bunch of key state figures. Newly appointed and recently dismissed officials have always attracted attention of bloggers, who constantly express and share their opinions and forecast who is gong to do what and what is going to be next.
Bakiev’s recent decision to dismiss the prime-minister Almazbek Atambaev [1], who after being a strong opposition member, became a prime-minister and served 8 months only, was unexpected. It has spurred quite an extensive discussion and elaboration among bloggers as to what caused the head of state to do so. The long discussion took place on Edil Baisalov’s blog [2], who is the member of the Social Democratic Party. The chairman of the party is Atambaev. Baisalov believes that the president wanted to dismiss the prime-minister because for him Atambaev is a real threat in the upcoming elections as he is not letting manipulation of officials happen. Atambaev was criticizing the policy of the president towards elections, and obviously president did not like it and wanted to get rid of him, said Baisalov [ru] [3].
Anonymous comments [3] on this:
3 plus one new – four prime-ministers within two and a half years is too much. It is a sign that our president cannot get along with people he works with? Where are the management skills of the leader of the country?
Tarantino says: [4]
Atambaev should understand that the president simply humiliated and made fun of him in front of the whole public. Atambaev, to be honest, deserves such a punishment.
Now, when Atambaev is dismissed and the party lists are submitted to the Central Election Committee, he is missing his chair both in the state and in the parliament. Talking about political parties and upcoming elections, bloggers are actively discussing each party, its platform, and most importantly its members, whose names are on the list for the election. Pre-election campaigns are intensively being organized by each party. They are now distributing agitation materials and using all the possible tools to do a PR campaign. The state authorities have set some limitation as to how and which equipment to use during agitation for crowds. For instance, they prohibited using loud-speakers, which caused a lot of criticism and protest among parties.
Here is how Baisalov reacts [5]:
Our party will insist on using loud-speakers during the agitation campaign. I do not care about those who are against it. [ru]
Part7 [5] does not welcome Baisalov’s idea. He goes on criticizing:
There are many other ways to promote your party, like printing brochures, holding campaigns for students and etc. But using loud-speakers disturb people and just cause extra noise.
Cross-posted on neweurasia [6].