With Kazakhstan's presidential election season having broken out two years early, an activist group has begun posting a series of videos on YouTube to educate young voters on proper procedures for parliamentary polls, also scheduled for 2012.
The first video issued by Ar.Rukh.Khak (Conscience.Spirit.Truth), one of the more lively activist groups on the Kazakh scene, is a simple primer on how to cast one's ballot and has attracted hundreds of hits since being posted last week.
Barring any decision by President Nursultan Nazarbayev to step aside, polls for the head of state should be a mere formality.
The picture looks a little different in the lower house of parliament, the Majlis, where Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party won all 98 contested seats in 2007. The remaining nine seats are occupied by deputies nominated by the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, a powerless consultative body representing the interests and views of Kazakhstan's diverse multiethnic community.
Accepted wisdom has it that authorities will ensure at least one other party will be allowed to enter the Majlis, although bets are open on who that might be or how many deputies will make the cut. As tempting as it is to believe this is a natural step on the way to growing democratization, the fact remains that Kazakhstan merely needs to cover up the embarrassment of its one-party legislature -- a state of affairs unmatched even by Uzbekistan, which at least pretends to have a competitive political system.
Ar.Rukh.Khak's opening video is expressly aimed at young and first-time voters, the first generation born after the fall of the Soviet Union that is eligible to cast a ballot. The second clip, meanwhile, is a demonstration on how to put one's own candidacy forward.
The tone of the videos posted so far (the first two of seven planned clips) has been utterly uncontroversial, although it is not hard to see potentially polemical qualities in the explanation of some of the legal issues.
At one stage, an activist explains that candidates may begin campaigning from when they have been registered to take part in the election. But that will strike anyone with eyes to see the thousands of Nur Otan posters perennially plastered around Kazakhstan as a footling distinction.
Nur Otan is virtually a parastatal organ. The leadership commonly uses its assemblies to announce public policy. And with a raft of media at its disposal, it is risible to suggest any democratic competition will be held on an even playing field.
Ar.Rukh.Khak's video on registering for the elections also reveals another, possibly inadvertent, irony. As explained by the activist group, the process could not be simpler and more trouble-free. In reality, however, there is every reason to believe that many hopeful candidates will be barred from running so as to avoid allowing them access to public media, where they could air their inconvenient views.
If nothing else, these videos represent an interesting and novel attempt by young Kazakh activists to inspire some sense of civic awareness among the country's youth.
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