A total of 183 international observers will monitor the nationwide referendum on the new constitution in Kyrgyzstan scheduled for April 11, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2021) A total of 183 international observers will monitor the nationwide referendum on the new constitution in Kyrgyzstan scheduled for April 11, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev said on Friday.
The decision to hold the nationwide referendum was approved by the Kyrgyz parliament on March 11, with President Sadyr Japarov signing a decree to put into force the decision the next day.
"The referendum in Kyrgyzstan will be monitored by 183 international observers," Kazakbaev said at a meeting with a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Bishkek.
The minister also thanked the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and Russia's lower chamber chairman Viacheslav Volodin for sending missions to observe the referendum.
According to the draft of the country's new constitution published in early February, Kyrgyzstan will establish a new institute People's Kurultai (council) that will serve as an advisory body and provide recommendations on social development priorities. The initiative also envisages the reduction in the number of lawmakers from 120 to 90. The constitutional changes would also boost the power of the country's leader, thus changing the government system from the existing parliamentary-presidential to presidential form of government.
The reform of the governmental system was backed by over 80 percent of voters in a separate referendum held along with a snap presidential election, which brought Japarov to victory, on January 10.
Kyrgyzstan switched to the current parliamentary-presidential system of government, in which powers are distributed between the president and prime minister, as a result of a referendum conducted after the Revolution of 2010.
