Freedom House: Armenia and Kyrgyzstan fall near the threshold for designation as a consolidated authoritarian regime
In its report entitled “Nations in Transit 2017” Freedom House compares Armenia with Kyrgyzstan. The Washington-based international human rights watchdog says in part, “The Armenian and Kyrgyzstani cases illustrate how authoritarianism continues to evolve and adapt to changing circumstances, even in weaker states with superficially competitive political environments. Faced with large-scale popular discontent and lacking the resources to completely co-opt or repress civil society and the opposition, presidents and ruling parties in these countries must find more subtle ways of retaining their grip on power. They may be changing the very structure of the state, but the goal is to preserve the political status quo.” The report published before the April 2 parliamentary elections in Armenia contains an interesting prediction. “The result in Armenia will be a government and parliament dominated by Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), which Sargsyan can continue to lead either officially or from behind the scenes; he has been ambiguous about whether he would serve as prime minister. The parliamentary system is simply a mechanism for ensuring that the RPA will remain in power for the foreseeable future, despite the country’s increasingly frequent outbreaks of antigovernment protest,” the report says. Continuing the comparison of the two countries –Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, the prestigious human rights watchdog says, “Armenia and Kyrgyzstan fall near the threshold for designation as a consolidated authoritarian regime. In both cases, the incumbent presidents are approaching the end of their terms and cannot run again. Moreover, they cannot be confident that fellow elites or the public would not revolt if they simply extended their terms, either legally or extralegally. The constitutional overhauls are seen as a way for Sargsyan and Atambayev to preserve their power (and assets) without risking an open confrontation.” Details can be foud here
