Text of report by the Kazakh news agency Interfax-Kazakhstan on
7th September

Almaty, 7th September: The forthcoming parliamentary elections
in Kazakhstan "will not be honest and fair", the leader of
Kazakhstan's communists, Serikbolsyn Abdildin, said at a news
conference on Tuesday [7th September].

He said the law "On elections", in the section on the
election process "has remained unchanged". "Electoral
commissions have a complete base for forging and rigging
votes," he said. He also thinks that electoral commissions
"polished the system of rigging votes" at the presidential
elections [held in January 1999].

In Abdildin's opinion, an OSCE full-scale mission to
monitor the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan "in principle
can not have an influence on the election process". He thinks
the OSCE observers will "possibly, to some extent, slightly"
exert "psychological influence" on members of electoral
commissions.

Abdildin does not doubt that "electoral commissions will
protect the interests of parties of power - Otan and the Civic
Party [of Kazakhstan] (CPK). He said these parties "are
financed by corrupt authorities and mafia enterpreneurs".
The leader of the communists forecasted that "most likely"
the first meeting of the new parliament would raise the issue
of sequestering the 2000 budget, which must be adopted by the
present deputy's corps, as, Abdildin considers, "the state will
be forced to find funds in order to return money spent on
financing the electoral campaigns of the parties of power".

"If someone from the opposition breaks through the power's
defence and finds himself in the new composition of parliament,
then this will be an insignificant number of members of the
opposition and which will not be able to seriously influence
the course of the political life of the country," he said.
Abdildin thinks that "even one-third of the new

composition of the parliament must oppose the adoption of
unfounded laws in future". In his opinion, this one-third "must
consist" of representatives of political parties, which joined
the Republic opposition election bloc (consisting of five
unifications and parties ).

The Communist Party of Kazakhstan has nominated 32
candidates for elections to the Majlis (lower house). Moreover,
the party list of the Communist Party consists of eight people,
with Abdildin at the top. Communists have proposed 24 nominees
from single-seat constituences.

The elections to the bicameral parliament of Kazakhstan
have been scheduled for 17th September (to the Senate [upper
house]) and for 10th October (to the Majlis [lower house]).

Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian
0645 gmt 07 Sep 99
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