Text of report by Kazakh Khabar TV on 7th September

[Presenter] The election campaign was rich in events and
unexpected announcements by candidates [for the Kazakh
parliamentary elections to be held on 17th September for the
upper house and 10th October for the lower house] today [7th
September]. Some of them said that they fear for their lives,
others are sure of failure and still others cannot sleep at
nights for thinking about the low payments for deputies. One of
the leaders of the Alash Party, Zhaksybay Bazilbayev, ranks
first here. He told journalists today a tale which is like a
detective story.

[Correspondent] This is the second time that Deputy
Chairman of the Alash Party Zhaksybay Bazilbayev is running in
an election campaign. Last winter he nominated himself for the
presidential post [in elections held on 10th January 1999] but
he himself withdrew his candidacy in the run-up to the
elections. This autumn he is the first in the list of
candidates from the Alash Party for parliamentary seats.
However, he will have to think again about standing down in the
elections as he is alarmed by telephone calls warning him about
an attempt on his life.

[Bazilbayev, sitting on a sofa with Kazakh and Russian
language journalists] I received a call, a short telephone
call, from an ethnic Kazakh who said: "Is your name Zhaksybay?
Withdraw your candidacy! Watch out!"

[Correspondent] Bazilbayev, who twice happily escaped
danger, is afraid of going out now and cannot know whether the
threat comes from his party members or whether they do not have
anything to do with it.

[Bazilbayev] Most probably somebody is strongly against my
getting into parliament at all.

[Correspondent] According to Bazilbayev, talk about a
split in the Alash Party is greatly exaggerated. He said that
four lists of candidates were drawn up including his name,
which confused the Central Electoral Commission, because they
[his party] simply needed standby versions for any
unpredictable event in the election campaign. Now, Bazilbayev
is much more worried about his own fate, which is like a
detective story, than whether his party will be able to sort
out this confusion of documents and stand in the elections.

Source: Khabar TV, Almaty, in Russian 1430 gmt 07 Sep 99
BBC Mon CAU 090999/** JF/QU