Kazakhstan: Government Expects Big Election Win, While Complaints Persist

Responding to early results that showed a government sweep of the polls, Otan (Fatherland) Deputy Chairman Amangeldy Yermegiyayev told an Astana press conference that the party expected to take "no less than 60 percent" of the 77 parliamentary seats up for election by direct or party vote, Interfax reported. Otan's showings were particularly strong in the 40 electoral districts where candidates ran according to party lists, Yermegivayev claimed, with 75 percent of the seats going to Otan representatives. The party is also fielding candidates in 18 of the 22 districts up for a run-off vote, he said.

"Judging by all accounts, Otan will represent a majority in the future parliament," Yermegiyayev declared.

Official results have not yet been released by Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission.
The Kazakh Institute for Socioeconomic Information and Forecasts announced poll results Tuesday that largely echoed Otan's findings, showing the party favored by President Nursultan Nazarbayev as the clear favorite, with 32.82 percent of voters nationwide saying they had voted for the party, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. The president's daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, saw her party, Asar (All Together), fall into third place with roughly 17.61 percent of the vote. Trailing Otan by a considerable margin is the centrist party Ak Zhol (Bright Path), which garnered nearly 21 percent of the vote. The election bloc formed by the reformist Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK) and the Communist Party secured a mere 8.65 percent of the vote.

In an online statement, the bloc took issue with the conduct of the election, calling for a national vote of confidence in President Nursultan Nazarvayev and the Kazakhstani leader's resignation. Among the complaints cited by the bloc: "massive and well-organized" violations of opposition candidates' electoral rights, widespread voting list discrepancies and the presence of unauthorized observers in polling places. In response, the bloc has called for Kazakhstan's Supreme Court to investigate reports of voting violations and for parties that gained more than 7 percent of the vote publish a financial audit of their campaigns – an apparent reference to earlier allegations made by the opposition that Asar spent millions in excess of campaign spending limits.

"The democratic forces had not been stopped by political repressions against the leaders and activists. The democratic forces had not been stopped by the draconian Law on Political Parties. The democratic forces won't be stopped by fraudulent elections. The regime shall reckon with us," the statement read.

In a throwback to the media wars that characterized the pre-election campaign, the pro-government Kazakhstanskaya Pravda placed a different spin on the DCK's reaction, citing party observer Askar Rakhimzhanov as saying that the voting process had become "more active and democratic" compared with the 1999 parliamentary elections, a heavily criticized poll.

Meanwhile, complaints from one group of Kazakhstani election observers have been added to the criticisms of the September 19 vote voiced Monday by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Dos Koshim, head of the National Organization of Independent Observers, told Interfax that in many polling stations election monitors had been prevented from observing the vote. "They were given places from where nothing could be seen. They were removed during the vote counting. They were not given protocols [of vote counts]... They were not allowed to shoot video and photographs, although the law stipulates this."

Use of electronic voting booths proved particularly problematic. The machines had been touted by Kazakhstani officials as a more effective means of ensuring a fair and accurate vote. Voters in Almaty polling stations were encouraged to opt for the machines over a traditional paper ballot, but elderly voters appeared to have considerable difficulty in using the machines, and were often assisted by representatives of the Central Election Commission. Technical failures also occurred.

Commenting on results from the electronic voting system, Kazakhstani Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov preferred to emphasize the positive. "[T]his is what all of humanity is headed toward," the pro-government Kazakhstanskaya Pravda quoted him as saying. "I think that the experiment justified itself."