Text of report by the Kazakh news agency Interfax-Kazakhstan on
17th September

Almaty, 17th September: In Kazakhstan representatives of the
public, in particular, Senator Sabir Kasimov and the leader of
the opposition Progress (Orleu) movement, Seydakhmet
Kuttykadam, fear that the authorities might deem invalid the
elections to the Senate (upper house) of parliament, they said
at a press conference in Almaty on Friday.
The elections of 16 senators were held in the republic on
17th September. In line with the legislation the senators are
elected at meetings of the maslikhats (local representative
bodies of power) of 14 Regions of the republic and the cities
of Astana and Almaty.

Kasimov is running for a seat in the Senate and Kuttykadam
for the Majlis (lower house) of parliament. The elections to
the Majlis are scheduled for 10th October.
Kasimov and his proxies consider that the results of the
election of the senator at a meeting of the Almaty city
maslikhat were forged. They said that the chairman of the
Almaty electoral commission, Kazbek Zhirenchin, refused to show
the ballot papers cast to maslikhat deputies who expressed
doubt about the objectivity of the vote-counting, to proxies of
candidates for Senate seats and to observers, among whom was
the head of the OSCE mission for monitoring the parliamentary
elections in Kazakhstan, Linda Edgeworth.

Kasimov and his proxies said that they intended to lodge
an appropriate appeal to the Central Electoral Commission and
also to bring an action with the judicial bodies against the
head of the city electoral commission. According to information
announced at the meeting of the Almaty maslikhat, of three
candidates, Academician Zhabaykhan Abdildin was re-elected a
Senate deputy.

In his turn, Kuttykadam stressed that if the Senate
elections were officially deemed invalid, this would make it
possible to annul the results of the parliamentary elections as
a whole. In Kuttykadam's opinion, the presidential structures
could do this if a new Majlis, more opposition-oriented than
the previous one, did not suit them. In Kuttykadam's opinion,
the authorities could use as grounds for pronouncing the
Seneate elections invalid the fact that the term in office of
deputies of regional maslikhats has already expired and,
therefore, they do not have the authority to elect Senate
deputies.

As Senator Kasimov stressed, the illegitimacy of the
supreme bodies of the authority "is an issue of the republic's
national security".

Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian
1147 gmt 17 Sep 99
BBC Mon CAU 180999/** VA/KA