Civil Society:
KAZAKHSTAN: ASTANA'S REFORM DRIVE AHEAD OF OSCE CHAIRMANSHIP DISAPPOINTS OPPOSITION
Joanna Lillis: 12/04/08

As the end of the year approaches, Kazakhstan has been galvanized into pushing through political reform to meet commitments given to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ahead of Kazakhstan's 2010 OSCE chairmanship. But the unveiled reforms, officially billed as a major liberalization, did not meet the hopes of opposition leaders, who have attacked them as a sham.

A proposed election law clause that bans a one-party parliament is the most far-reaching reform. The draft law retains a 7 percent vote threshold for parties to secure seats, but stipulates that if only one party clears the threshold, the runner-up party will still enter parliament. The 2007 election to the lower house of parliament saw only Nur Otan, led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, win seats after no other party cleared the threshold. This left Kazakhstan in the uncomfortable position of having a one-party parliament in a state professing a multi-party democracy. The situation was compounded when Nur Otan members won all 16 Senate seats that were up for election this October.

According to an August poll of 2,895 respondents conducted by the Association of Sociologists and Political Scientists and published in Respublika newspaper on November 7, Nur Otan (Fatherland's Ray of Light) is Kazakhstan's most popular party, but enjoys just a 30-percent support rating.

Prime Minister Karim Masimov gave a clue to official thinking when the cabinet approved the reform package on November 11. "The multi-party nature of the legislative, irrespective of electoral factors, will become a substantial factor which will play a significant role in the country's future political history," he said, Kazakhstan Today news agency reported. The comment fuelled criticism that the electorate is the last consideration on the administration's mind.

A final parliamentary vote on the draft election law clause is expected before 2009, but no precise date has so far been set.

Opposition leaders countered that the new provision would not necessarily provide meaningful opposition representation in parliament: the second parliamentary party could be a tame one, and -- if genuine -- may be powerless after winning just a handful of seats.

The draft laws "are not in line with promises made by the Kazakhstani authorities on bringing legislation into line with OSCE standards and are insufficient for genuine political modernization," the National Social Democratic Party (NSDP) said in a November 17 statement. The party has called for public hearings into the plans.

The Azat party described the proposals as "a total profanity" in a statement the same day. "Changing nothing in essence, retaining all the excessively restrictive obstacles and prohibitions, in the best traditions of authoritarian demagoguery, the former shallow texts of the laws have been cosmetically spruced up," it said.

Opposition parties say many of their proposals were ignored, including tackling election falsification, ensuring opposition representation on election commissions, providing access to voter lists, abolishing electronic voting and assuring equal campaigning conditions. They were particularly dismayed that a ban on parties forming election blocs remains in place.

They were also disappointed with a separate package of amendments to the law on political parties, despite an insistence by Culture and Information Minister Mukhtar Kul-Mukhammed, in presenting the draft law to the cabinet, that some changes "almost word for word reflect the proposals of the Azat and NSDP parties," Kazakhstan Today reported.

The government says it is liberalizing party registration rules and removing bureaucratic obstacles, including reducing the number of members' signatures required to apply for party registration from 50,000 to 40,000. The opposition had argued that 5,000 would be more realistic.

The government also unveiled planned changes to media legislation, including relaxing registration rules for media outlets, removing a requirement that journalists seek permission before publishing recorded comments, and abolishing a legal loophole in cases of rebuttal whereby journalists must prove the authenticity of a report rather than their accusers proving it false.

Some journalists were dissatisfied with the plans. "The general line of our authorities is to hold the media on as short a leash as possible," commented writer Sergei Duvanov, who has served a prison sentence for alleged rape that he says was prompted by his reporting. "It is clear why -- so they don't bite," he wrote in Respublika on November 14.

Duvanov was among signatories of a November 25 statement by 15 prominent reporters, editors-in-chief and activists. "Depicting the cosmetic amendments proposed by the government as genuine liberalization is total disregard of common sense and honest journalism," it said.

In a report released December 1, Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed concern about restrictions on freedom of religion, expression and assembly and called on Kazakhstan to conduct meaningful reform ahead of its OSCE chairmanship. "Kazakhstan has no time to lose in making necessary rights improvements," said Rachel Denber, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director. "Before it becomes chair of the OSCE in 2010, it should show its people and the world it is serious about reform."

"The new draft amendments are a small step forward, but do little to address core problems and offer no path to real change," she added.

The government has not responded to the criticism.

Editor's Note: Joanna Lillis is a freelance writer who specializes in Central Asia.