OSCE MONITORS POLL

The Parliamentary Assembly delegation of the OSCE arrived
in Almaty on 7th October to monitor the elections,
Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reported on 7th October. The
OSCE office in Almaty told the agency that the delegation was
made up of 18 MPs from Italy, Belgium, Austria, the
Netherlands, Poland and other European countries and the USA.
There are currently 114 OSCE observers in Kazakhstan, the
agency said.

After meeting President Nazarbayev in Astana on 4th
October, the OSCE chairman and Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut
Vollebaek told the agency that the OSCE would work with the new
parliament "to further improve" the election law. The latter
"positively assessed" the recently-introduced changes to the
electoral legislation. He also said that they "cannot remain
indifferent to the situation in Central Asia" and believed that
the OSCE could do a lot "to prevent the conflicts" here.
In a report carried on 8th October the agency quoted the
Central Electoral Commission as saying that 170 representatives
of international organizations, including 150 from the OSCE
will observe the elections. The CEC also said that preliminary
results would be made known within 12 hours after the start of
vote counting. Under the electoral legislation, the election
results will be determined in seven days' time, the agency said