Excerpts from report by the Kazakh news agency
Interfax-Kazakhstan
Almaty, 18th October: Two parties - the Communist [Party of
Kazakhstan] and the [propresidential] Fatherland [Otan] party
which have "really" overcome the 7-per-cent barrier in the
parliamentary elections held on 10th October -should share the
10 seats in the majlis [lower house] of Kazakhstan's parliament
[taken through elections by party lists], the leader of the
Communist Party [of Kazakhstan], Serikbolsyn Abdildin, told a
news conference in Almaty on Monday [18th October].
[Passage omitted: four parties overcame the 7-per-cent
barrier in the election: the Communist Party, the Fatherland
party, the Agrarian Party of Kazakhstan and the
(propresidential) Civic Party of Kazakhstan. According to the
Central Electoral Commission's calculation, the Otan party will
take four, the Communist Party - two, the Agrarian Party - two
and the Civic Party - two seats].
In Abdildin's opinion, the Agrarian and the Civic parties
"pulled up their socks to take seats from the Communist party".
According to communists' forecasts, the Communist Party
should have taken seven of the 10 seats in the majlis by party
lists, which, Abdildin emphasized, is confirmed by various
sources, including observers from the communists and the data
of the opinion poll conducted by the Association of
Sociologists and Political Scientists.
Abdildin said that the Communist Party had "voiced a
protest" against the results announced by the Central Electoral
Commission last Sunday [17th October].
Abdildin noted that the Communist Party "has a lot of
evidence" that the election results were rigged to cast doubt
on the results of the elections by party lists. The leader of
communists believes that the country's leadership "did not
provide for holding fair elections". "One can say that local
akims (heads of regions) held the elections," he said.
In his opinion, the republic's leadership "has made a
terrible mistake" by "squeezing out" seats in the parliament
that should have been taken by representatives of the
opposition in the elections". "If the authorities do not want
to talk to the opposition in the parliament's structure,"
Abdildin said "they (the authorities-Interfax-Kazakhstan) may
provoke the street [into disorder, presumably]."
The leader of communists noted that in the event that the
elections were deemed illegal and invalid, he would "without
any regret" leave the new parliament.
At the same time Abdildin emphasized that he "is satisfied
that there are many more people who are now discontented and
convinced of the rigging of the election results" than there
were with regard to the results of the presidential elections
in January [10th January,1999]. "This also should influence
Kazakhstan's future to a certain degree," he believes.
Abdildin said that the candidates to [majlis] deputies
from the opposition Republic [Respublika] election bloc who had
gone through to the second round of elections were mainly
running up against candidates fielded by the Fatherland Party.
In this connection, he believes that the candidates from the
Republic bloc "will not be allowed into parliament". Abdildin
emphasized that the Republic bloc "will continue its work" in
the parliament. He does not rule out the possibility that some
independent deputies as well deputies who "came to the
parliament through the parties of the power" will join the bloc.
The Republic bloc was formed in the runup to the election
campaign and unites the Communist, the Republican People's
Party, the Progress [Orleu] and Union of Officers public
movements as well as the Association of Russian, Slavic and
Cossack public associations.
[Passage to end omitted: summary of previous reports.]
Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian
0818 gmt 18 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 181099/** JF/DG