Text of report by the Kazakh news agency Interfax-Kazakhstan

Almaty, 25th October. The parliamentary elections held in
Kazakhstan on 10th and 24th October (the second round) did not
comply with OSCE's requirement formulated in the Copenhagen
document of 1990, says an early statement by the OSCE's mission
for observing the elections which was announced by the head of
the elections department of the [OSCE's] Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights [ODIHR], Hrair Balian, on Monday
[25th October].

The elections held, the document notes, are "an
unconvincing step in the direction of international standards".
The OSCE's requirements to hold "general, equal, fair, secret,
free, transparent and responsible elections have been
considerably damaged by widespread, universal and illegal
meddling with the election process by the executive branch of
power", the conclusions reached by the OSCE's mission emphasize
. In the mission's opinion, electoral commissions and courts
"were unable to eliminate these violations effectively".

At the same time, Balian emphasized that the ODIHR was
ready to reconsider its conclusions if the official structures
- the executive branch of power, courts an the Central
Electoral Commission [CEC] - undertake "effective measures" to
eliminate the violations uncovered in the course of the
elections.

So, the OSCE's mission's statement, in particular, notes
that the mission "has copies of protocols containing blatant
falsifications". The mission "has evidence that candidates with
the first and the third results (instead of the candidate with
the second result) went through to the second round of
elections" in a constituency.

According to the OSCE's mission's data, the CEC received
over 400 complaints about violations of the electoral process,
"most" of which "remains unresolved after the time of
consideration envisaged by the law had expired". In this
connection the mission voices "concern", Balian noted, that the
holding of the second round of elections was set only two weeks
after the completion of the first round, although up to 60 days
are envisaged for this by law.

In addition, Balian emphasized, neither the CEC nor the
electoral commissions fulfilled the OSCE's request to provide
international observers with the election results in
constituencies to verify them with the CEC's data.
Balian emphasized that the OSCE "has no powers" to assess
the elections held as regards their legitimacy.

At the same time, answering journalists' questions, Balian
noted that if the presidential elections in the republic held
in January this year were considered by the OSCE as "far from
complying with" international democratic standards, then these
parliamentary elections had been assessed as "not complying"
with these standards. In this connection, Balian positively
assessed amendments to the electoral legislation which had been
made after the elections of the head of state.

[passage omitted: parliamentary elections were held in
Kazakhstan on 10th and 24th October, 67 deputies in the
parliament's lower house are elected in single-mandate
constituencies, 10 deputies are elected on party lists]
Balian said that 118 representatives of the OSCE observed
the first round of the elections, and 34 observers the second
round. The compaign for observing the parliamentary elections
cost the OSCE 180,000 dollars, Balian said.

The OSCE's mission will present the final conclusions
within a month, he said.

Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian
1216 gmt 25 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 251099/** AJBA/DG