You might think that in an election where the incumbent president is guaranteed to win, the opposition would be able to go about its business unhindered. Not in Kazakhstan, though, where the campaign for the presidential poll has taken a turn that’s both dirty and surreal.
Activists from the Alga! DVK party who took to the streets in the northern city of Pavlodar on March 11 had a festive air about them as they waved colorful balloons promoting a boycott of the April 3 vote.
As a video posted on YouTube shows, their cheerful mood was soon spoilt as they were set upon by five knife-wielding thugs with a clear target in mind: the balloons. Clearly disturbed by the subversive message on them (“I’m not going to the polls!”), the troublemakers set about popping the balloons with their knives, to the evident shock of the Alga! party members.
The circumstances of the attack “give grounds to assume that the act of intimidation was planned by those who consider themselves supporters of the current authorities and President [Nursultan] Nazarbayev,” the party said in a statement that also urged law-enforcement bodies to conduct a proper investigation to find and punish the perpetrators of the attack. “The Alga! people’s party demands from the authorities that they assure the security of citizens, irrespective of their party affiliation and degree of opposition to the ruling regime.”
It added that if authorities don’t, it will be a sign that the attack – which came just days after the Pavlodar branch of Alga! had complained to the police that members were being followed – was politically motivated.
The party, led by Vladimir Kozlov, is something of a thorn in the side of Nazarbayev’s administration and its unsuccessful battle to register with the authorities leaves it operating on the fringes of the law.
No one was seriously injured in the Pavlodar attack, but some activists suffered minor cuts as they tried to fend the thugs off. The skirmish sparked fears that an Alga!-backed rally in Almaty on March 13 would be disrupted, but it passed off peacefully. The protest, which was sanctioned by the Almaty city government, was ostensibly against a rumor (denied by the authorities) that Kazakhstan had reached a secret deal to lease land to China, but it took place against a backdrop of the logo promoting an election boycott, and speakers called for voters to stay away from the polls in protest at the election being called nearly two years early.
Joanna Lillis is a journalist based in Almaty and author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan.
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