In its preliminary assessment released on 11 October, the OSCE observer mission
to the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan termed the poll
an improvement on the January 1999 presidential elections,
Reuters and dpa reported. But the monitors noted that while
the actual conduct of the vote was relatively free of
violations, intimidation and obstruction of opposition
candidates and parties "seriously undermined" democratic
principles during the election campaign and "contributed to
widespread expectations that the election results would be
falsified and that nothing would change as a result of the
elections." LF