On March 4, the growing influence in Kyrgyz politics of social networking site Twitter revealed itself once more, as apparently unsubstantiated fears of a collapse of the country’s three-party ruling coalition were “tweeted” and “retweeted” across Kyrgyz cyber space.
Speaking at roughly 16.00pm on March 4, parliament speaker Akhmatbek Keldibekov, himself a member of coalition party Ata-Jurt, felt the need to counter the rumour mill with a fierce statement of coalition unity.
“In the morning there were a lot of rumors about the breakup of the coalition, but it’s not true,” said Keldibekov.His fellow party member, Azamat Arapbaev, meanwhile, blamed the parties in opposition for the information.
“This is [an attempt] to destabilize the coalition by the country’s opposition parties,” he told a reporter from Kloop.kg.
Fuelling talk of a collapse are the presidential elections in October and low attendance in parliament on behalf of MPs. On the day in question, 114 MPs out of a 120 possible had registered for the session, however, fewer than half of the MPs from coalition party Ata-Jurt and opposition parties Ar Namys and Ata Meken actually turned up.
Tweeting Kyrgyzstan
Twitter became a popular mode of political communication in Kyrgyzstan in the build up to the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiev. Opposition politicians used the medium to describe the breakup of protest meetings by government security forces.
Following the events of April 7, 2010, interim President Rosa Otunbayeva used Twitter to convince residents of the capital, Bishkek, that the army and police were restoring order in the city.
In regard to the situation concerning the rumoured collapse of the ruling coalition, Shirin Aitmatova, daughter of Kyrgyz literary hero Chingiz Aitmatov and a member of the Ata-Meken opposition party tweeted that rumours of the collapse “seemed to be confirmed” at the parliamentary session on March 4.
Nevertheless, no official announcement regarding the collapse of the coalition has been made, and no MP from any of the three parties of which it consists have officially declared their candidacy for the 2011 presidential elections in November.
Author: Chris Rickleton