Text of report by Kazakh Khabar TV on 25th August

The Citizen [Azamat] Party has started its election campaign -
it was the first to register its party list of candidates for
the elections to the Majlis [lower house of Kazakh parliament
-scheduled for 10th October; for registration of its candidates
see item filed as "Kazakh Citizen Party registers 10 candidates
for parliamentary elections" Khabar TV, Almaty, in Russian 1110
gmt 24 Aug 99], the party's chairman, Galym Abilsiitov, said
this today [25th August] in Almaty. He also crticized his main
political rivals.

[Presenter, over video of a press conference by Chairman
of Citizen Party Galym Abilsiitov and co-chairmen of the party,
Petr Svoik and Murat Auezov] The Citizen Party started its
first pre-election battle today. The leader of the Citizen
Party marked the start of its election campaign by criticising
his political rivals's address. The Fatherland [Otan] Party and
Civic Party of Kazakhstan became the main targets. Galym
Abilsiitov said that he was planning to turn to the Central
Electoral Commission [CEC] with a request to check the legality
of their formation and financing. At the same time, he
underlined that the money for the election campaign of his
party remains the most painful problem as they have no money
even for transport expenses.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Citizen Party remains
optimistic about his chance to win 10 or 15 seats in the
elections to the Majlis. Of the ten people included in the
party list, as they say, two or three will win seats to the
parliament. Galym Abilsiitov confirmed again today that the
party was not planning to enter any kind of coalition during
the election campaign. The main thing now is to define the real
forces and only after the successful results of the elections,
can one speak about uniting on political grounds.
 
Source: Khabar TV, Almaty, in Russian 1110 gmt 25 Aug 99
BBC Mon CAU 250899/** AJBA/QU