Let's start amicably or... Will new president make a good team with deputies

Almost a month left until the presidential elections. It is known that 13 candidates will fight for the highest political post. However, experts predict that the main struggle will unfold between the four contenders — Temir Sariev, Omurbek Babanov, Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Bakyt Torobayev. The first three have experience as prime minister.

24.kg news agency decided to restore the chronology of building relations between each of the four main players with the parliament.

Heads of government rarely had the support in the parliament. Temir Sariev and Omurbek Babanov were forced to resign with a scandal.

Sooronbai Jeenbekov managed to avoid such a fate: he left the prime minister’s seat and became a candidate from the party of power, received a strong support of the administrative resource.

Temir Sariev

Omurbek Babanov

Relations of the leader of Respublika — Ata Jurt party Omurbek Babanov with partners in the political Olympus almost always have been difficult. Remember that Omurbek Tekebayev, the permanent «leader» of socialists, helped him lose his premier post. It was he who brought to light the story of the horse that Babanov received as a gift from Turkish businessmen.

Elite English horse knocked out with the hoof the prime minister’s chair from Omurbek Babanov.

Sooronbai Jeenbekov

Now ex-Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov returned to politics in April 2010. He became governor of the Osh oblast. It was during his period of governorship the tragic Osh events of 2010 occurred.

Nevertheless, in this post he worked for five years and in October 2015 headed the State Personnel Department. He was elected prime minister in April 2016. In 2017, some political dreamers predicted his resignation, but the Social Democrats at their congress on July 15 nominated Sooronbai Jeenbekov as a single candidate for the presidency.

Bakyt Torobayev

Bakyt Torobayev is new compared with his competitors for the presidential race in politics. Until 2007 he was engaged in business. He is also called the «flour king». He owns the largest flour milling enterprise in the Jalal-Abad oblast. In December 2007, Bakyt Torobayev became a deputy of the fourth convocation on the list of «Ak Jol» party, everyone remembers it as Bakiyevs’. In October 2009 he was the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. In April 2010, left the post for obvious reasons and moved to Omurbek Babanov’s Respublika.

Will the sixth convocation be able to work till the end of term?

Presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan will be held on October 15. It is assumed that there will be more than one ballot. After an obvious second round, the country will know the name of the new head of state.

How will the future president work with the parliament, will he find common ground or dissolve the current convocation in order to receive a new one — obedient only to him?

According to Professor Zainidin Kurmanov, everything will depend on the contractability of the next head of state, his position and values.

«Of the current four, Omurbek Babanov seems to be the most flexible in terms of concessions. But, on the other hand, I don’t think that the future leader will have any disagreements with the deputy corps. The parliament is too spineless, not sharp-tongued, deputies will resignedly hang upon lips of the newly elected president and carry out all his commands and instructions,» Zainidin Kurmanov said.

— The king is dead. Long live the king?

— Exactly. And then, if the deputies start to argue — if not the candidate who is being betted on the «top» will come into «throne», it is always possible to dissolve the unwanted convocation.

Political scientist Zamirbek Biymurzayev is also convinced that there will be no special contradictions between the president and the deputy corps. «If Jeenbekov becomes the president, this convocation will quietly finish its term. And the deputies themselves are unlikely to want to quarrel with the head of state. Moreover, in the current membership of the parliament there is no avant-garde, ready to follow the principle and uphold its position up to the end even before the threat of deprivation of the mandate, and the election of Sapar Isakov to the post of prime minister very well demonstrated that with this convocation it is easy to come to agreement,» Zamirbek Biymurzayev said.

— But all the candidates (with the exception of Jeenbekov) at different times clashed with the parliament.

— Right. But not as presidents. Babanov and Sariev retired with scandals, which the parliamentarians were stirring up. But both were prime ministers and didn’t have real levers of influence. Torobayev prefers not to quarrel with anyone at all. So, I think, the future president won’t have problems with the deputy corps.

This is the opinion of experts. Whether the parliament be as spineless as now, are MPs still ready to «snap a salute» with the initiatives launched from above, time will tell.

The newly elected head of state, whoever he is, after October 15 will be able to dissolve the sixth convocation and announce new elections in the parliament.

In the history of Kyrgyzstan, such precedents have already happened. Askar Akaev dissolved the «legendary» parliament because it was impossible to come to a consensus on Kumtor, and Kurmanbek Bakiyev got rid of the next convocation, replacing it with his «Ak Jol» one.