For Just Kazakhstan
Newsletter, August 15-21, 2005

Presidential Elections to Take Place in December 2005

Kazakhstan’s constitutional court has decided that the country’s presidential election should be held this December. The opposition had campaigned for a December poll, while some government officials had argued that it should be held towards the end of next year. However, the opposition accused advocates of this later date of just playing for more time. Some observers have suggested this vast oil-rich country could be another candidate for the popular revolutions which have now unseated three post-Soviet presidents in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan, a vast but sparsely populated country with rapidly growing oil production, since 1989. The Central Asian state has not held an election judged free and fair by Western poll monitors. “The very nature of the system of power created by you prevents free and fair elections,” Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, the opposition challenger, wrote to Nazarbayev in an open letter on Wednesday. The large-scale crackdown campaign, which included ban on protests, persecution of the oppositionists, provocations and repressive legislation put doubts on fairness of the vote.

Opposition Leader “Determined to Run for the Presidency”

Leader of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” Zharmakhan Tuyakbai received a letter from the prosecutor’s office accusing him of illegal pre-election campaign, which he considered as a proof of President’s inability to face honest political competition and, in his turn, addressed President Nazarbayev with the letter, citing violations, committed by the head of state, who had started his pre-election campaign back in February with the Address to the Nation.

Mr. Tuyakbai’s brought a special focus to intensified persecution and repressions against the activists and supporters of the democratic forces. He also stated that the President illegally conducts pre-election agitation and involves all state institutions, pro-governmental media and budgetary funds to influence the public opinion and mobilize the population, which, in fact, is a flagrant abuse of power.

Experts predict that in the process of preparation for the forthcoming elections there can be expected more precedents of such kind, because the authorities are ready to go all lengths to retain the power and restrict the opposition’s activity. However, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai openly stated in his letter that he is determined to take part in the elections “to challenge the autocracy and corruption” of the Nazarbayev’s regime, and to conduct democratic reforms.

Regime Gets Nervous Amid Growing Support for Opposition

On August 16, 2005, representatives of the Almaty Public Prosecutor’ office delivered an official letter with “explanation of the law” to Chairman of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, accusing the opposition leader of making “pre-election statements” during his meetings in the regions. The Public Prosecutor’ office ordered Mr. Tuyakbai to stop his trips until the official announcement of elections and registration of candidates.

Experts say that this letter is a striking evidence of growing popularity of both the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” and its Chairman Zharmakhan Tuyakbai among the people. He traveled over the country and enjoyed broad and active support of the Movement’s ideas. The letter is a kind of litmus paper of the regime’s attitude regarding potential candidate from the united opposition forces.

“I think that the Public Prosecutor’s office is carrying out an order from Astana. We have doubted fairness of the upcoming elections, but this exceeds all expectations. Apparently, the regime will not reform the electoral legislation despite our concrete proposals. After all, the prosecutors should have brought charges against Nazarbayev, who, in fact, holds a full-scale pre-election campaign since February”, says Amirzhan Kosanov, an activist of the Movement.

Akims Elections Experiment Is a Farce, Opposition Says

On August 12, 2005, elections of heads of district administrations has taken place in four regions of Kazakhstan as an “experiment”, which was presented to the public as a “step towards democratization of the power vertical”. The same day, the Central Election Commission declared the vote valid – four incumbent Akims were “elected” for their posts in the indirect elections. Deputies of the local representative bodies (Maslikhats) played the role of electors, while the real electorate was not involved.

The Kazakh democratic opposition called this procedure a profanation of the idea of elections. It was the opposition activists who consistently pressed for the necessity to establish viable system of local self-governance as a key element of democratization. The debate was widely supported in the society, and, finally, the authorities were forced to make concessions. But the regime did not risk allowing direct election of governors at all levels, as the democrats demanded. Today the governors are appointed personally by president Nazarbayev.

“It is a political farce, an imitation of elections and a parody on democratic reforms. The loss of stiff vertical would be a catastrophe for the existing autocratic regime. That’s why it will never hold really free and fair elections. The regime is afraid of the people”, says ex-member of the Parliament, activist of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” Serikbai Alibayev.

It is necessary to remind that the Maslikhats elections in 2003 were even more scandalous and undemocratic than the 2004 parliamentary vote, which has been condemned by the observers as “not meeting the international standards”. The indirect elections to the Senate of the Parliament on August 19 would provide the same sad result, as soon as not a single representative of the opposition has been registered as a candidate.

Housing Row Sharpens in Kazakhstan

The housing program of the government was shattered into pieces. In his yearly address president Nazarbayev noted that every Kazakhstani citizen should have housing. As more than half a year has passed, the country situation is in crisis. The authorities can not offer anything to people whose housing is being demolished. People with children living in family dormitories are simply to be left on the street. Such anti-social policies were met with resistance.

On August 16, the attempt of arbitrary eviction of 27 families from the barrack they are living in took place in Kamenka village (Almaty region). The landlord company “Metal Invest”, court officers and police tried to forcibly throw the women and children into the street. Earlier, the local authorities, not having in mind the possibility of civilized and humane resolution of the problem, cut off water and electricity supply to the dormitory. The desperate people were forced to use extreme ways of protecting their rights by getting ready for self-immolation.

Bulat Abilov, one of the leaders of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” was there, in the thick of things. After tense negotiations with the landlord organization, “Metal Invest” agreed to delay eviction. “Settling the people in a new place is the problem of local administration, of the authorities. The citizens of Kazakhstan must have the right to affordable housing. The thing is that land here is very expensive, and somebody is going to make big money at the expense of these people”, Mr. Abilov said.

Tuyakbai in Uralsk

Chairman of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” Zharmakhan Tuyakbai continues his trip in the western regions. On August 10, he visited Uralsk. The meeting on the territory of the “Agroremash” factory was attended by 600 people, who discussed the president’s Address to the Nation, citing large amount of empty promises, while daily life of the people is not getting better. The assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, criticizing the president and urging him not to run for presidency at the upcoming elections. The authorities tried to disrupt a meeting with provocations and pressure.

Later that day, the leader of the united opposition forces, arrived to Taskala. As usually, the organizers were not allowed to hold meeting at the place, which had been arranged in advance, and the assembly took place in the private house of one of the activists. A lively dialogue on social, economic and political situation in the country took place between Zh. Tuyakbai and nearly 150 residents of the district center. As Mr. Tuyakbai noted in his speech, the level of political and civil maturity of the citizens is not corresponding with the president’s statement about their unreadiness for democracy.

The opposition leader named lack of control over the authorities and their irresponsibility as the main reasons of the social problems. The parasitic and corrupt system can not be purified from its defects by itself and, therefore, it should be changed democratically. “President Nazarbayev is not the main problem. Conservation of this vicious system of power would make any president a dictator”, stressed Zharmakhan Tuyakbai. On August 12, Mr. Tuyakbai and Members of Presidium of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” left to Almaty.

Police Seized Circulation of the New Constitution

Late at night on Wednesday, August 17, activist of the Movement “For Just Kazakhstan” Marat Baimukhanbetov has been detained by the police when he was driving in his car from the printing house with 10,000 copies of the brochure about the New Constitution, which had been proposed by the democratic forces. Higher police officers forced a lock of the car, forcibly dragged the oppositionist out of his car and took him to the police station. No charges were brought against him, but he was forced to sign the report on requisitioning of the prints.

The law prohibits state intervention into activity of the officially registered public associations, but police motivated its actions by the allegedly “possible calls for disorders and breach of territorial integrity” in the book. The incident recurred next day, when Baimukhanbetov tried to pick up the second part of the circulation. “It is obvious by the unaided eye that the brochure does not contain any illegalities. This is a deliberate attempt to prevent dissemination of the book”, says lawyer S. Mussin. The whole circulation is now under arrest, waiting for expertise.

www.adilet2005.kz