Text of report by Kazakh Khabar TV on 17th October

[Presenter] At the beginning of our programme ["Zhety Kun" -
"Seven Days", Khabar TV weekly news analytical programme], we
said that Chairwoman of the Central Electoral Commission [CEC]
Zagipa Baliyeva broke her week-long silence today [17th
October] and eventually announced the results of the voting [in
the parliamentary elections for the lower house, the majlis,
held on 10th October], having postponed speaking virtually to
the very last moment. Among the questions which journalists
have accumulated to ask Zagipa Baliyeva, the following are the
most topical: Might it be that recognizing as invalid the
results of elections held in any of the constituencies means
that the whole new parliament is not legitimate, which happened
with us once before. The second question was whether the CEC
has enough money for holding runoff elections in 47 electoral
districts.

[Baliyeva] If the results of elections are recognized
invalid in certain electoral districts, the parliament will
still be legitimate: parliament is legitimate if over half of
the number of the deputies have been elected. Well I do not
think such a thing will happen. If the CEC, court bodies and
the Constitutional Council recognize the election results in
certain electoral districts as invalid, this will not affect
the parliament's work. Runoff elections will be announced in
those electoral districts and the the elections will be held
according to the timescale established by legislation.
The government has already allocated money for the CEC [to
hold runoff elections] and the money has already arrived at the
electoral districts.

[Presenter] We remind you that these results announced by
Zagipa Baliyeva can be considered the preliminary final results
as the CEC has still three more days to go for the final
announcement of the results of the elections for the lower
house of the parliament. The second round of voting will be
held exactly in a week, next Sunday [24th October]. A total of
94 candidates will be running for 47 deputies' mandates. It
most likely that the turnout will be higher than in the first
round. It is simpler and more interesting to choose one of two
candidates. Well, this is a topic for the next week.

Source: Khabar TV, Almaty, in Russian 1415 gmt 17 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 181099/** JF/QU