Kyrgyzstan approves controversial constitution reform

Voters in Kyrgyzstan Sunday approved a raft of constitutional changes that strengthen the hand of President Almazbek Atambayev, suggesting a drift away from Western-style democracy in the Central Asian state.
Official preliminary results showed voters in the ex-Soviet republic strongly backing the amendments with 79.67 percent approval. Only 40 percent of eligible voters participated, the election commission said.
The vote means the prime minister - currently Atambayev ally Sooronbay Jeenbekov - will gain new powers over budget-related legislation, and need neither parliamentary or presidential approval to appoint and dismiss ministers.
Atambayev has repeatedly denied accusations he will drop down into the strengthened premier's role when his single six-year term ends next year.
The last time the constitution was amended, in 2010, a by-law stipulated that the existing basic law should remain unchanged until 2020. But parliament and the judiciary both endorsed the reforms approved Sunday.
In October two political parties exited the coalition government led by Atambayev's Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan in opposition to the proposed changes.
Other amendments that appear to threaten individual rights have drawn criticism at home and abroad.
One, highlighted by the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, defines marriage as "between a man and a woman" rather than "two persons" as previously.
Kyrgyzstan has come under fire from the West since 2014 for considering an LGBT propaganda bill which echoes one passed by key ally Russia, but the law has not progressed beyond the draft stage.
Another amendment denounced by rights groups removes the government's obligation to consider the opinions of international rights bodies regarding citizens' complaints of rights violations.
Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous majority-Muslim republic of six million, is the most democratic of the so-called Central Asian "stans", but also the most politically volatile.
In just 25 years of independence the country of six million has experienced two revolutions unseating presidents in 2005 and 2010, and ethnic violence.
Under Atambayev, the country cancelled the lease on a US military base in 2014 and moved closer to Russia, where hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz work.