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At stake in this referendum:

Description of government structure:

Chief of State: President Askar AKAYEV
Head of Government: Prime Minister Nikolay TANAYEV
Legislature: Kyrgyzstan has a bicameral parliament called the Supreme Council (Zhogorku Kenesh) made of the Assembly of People’s Representatives with 70 seats and the Legislative Assembly which has 35 seats.

Main provisions in this Referendum:

To include an amendment in which some of the executive powers will be allocated to the Supreme Council and local officials, and to assign specific duties for each member, in effect:
- The President’s power vis a vis all branches of government and society at large has been greatly increased, and
- The power and independence of Parliament have been greatly reduced.
To change Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Council from a bicameral to a unicameral assembly; reducing the number of deputies down from 105 to 75.
To further regulate and limit the activities of the Legislature.
The Arbitration courts within Kyrgyzstan’s judicial system will be merged with and concentrating power in the Supreme Court.
The Constitutional court will have a reduced role but gain the power of assessing the constitutionality of activities of political parties, social and religious organizations.
The referendum will ask if AKAYEV should stay in office to the end of his term, slated for December 2005, in order to implement the new constitutional amendments.
To provide absolute and permanent immunity for the President and his family.

Results of the Referendum:

Acceptance of the constitutional amendments:
Number of Yes Votes: 1,889,203
Percent of Yes Votes: 76.61%
Number of No Votes: 574,332
Percent of No Votes: 23.29%
Allowing President AKAYEV to remain in office until December 2005:
Number of Yes Votes: 1,941,558
Percent of Yes Votes: 78.74%
Number of No Votes: 524,226
Percent of No Votes: 21.26%

Population and number of eligible voters:

Is there anything unique about this upcoming referendum that would be of interest to an international audience?

This was the fourth referendum called by the government of Kyrgyzstan. The last constitutional referendum in Kyrgyzstan was held on October 17, 1998 which granted more power to the legislative body.
The referendum was called by President AKAYEV in response to criticisms regarding the state’s inability to stop various political standoffs between the government and the public.
On January 10, 11 opposition members of the Constitutional Council criticized that AKAYEV cannot call for a referendum unless parliament passes a law allowing for referendums to be called. Currently such a law has not been passed or approved by the Supreme Council. The Legislature postponed the vote on the referendum ballot to after the holding of the referendum on 2 February 2003.
Following several months of work by the Constitutional Council, the president appointed an Expert Group to prepare the final proposals which the opposition charges is considerably different to that prepared by the Constitutional Council be consensus.
Following complaints of inaccuracies and omissions in the final proposals, the government conceded and made changes to the draft after it had been published and distributed to the public.

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ELECTION SYSTEMS (IFES)

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: IFES ELECTIONGUIDE ONLINE