Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. ·Sept. 22, 2004

AT LEAST HE'S CONSISTENT -- He's done it again. Kazakhstan's increasingly autocratic leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has just rigged another election despite repeated promises to clean up his act. This one could pave the way for his favorite daughter to succeed him some day. Here, based on a variety of news reports, is what happened:
BROKEN PROMISES -- President Nazarbayev failed to keep his promise that Sunday's vote for parliament would be "transparent, fair and democratic." That was the unanimous conclusion of hundreds of international observers and media covering the parliamentary elections that were supposed to be a demonstration of democracy in the oil-rich former Soviet republic. The New York Times headline declared: "Election in Kazakhstan Failed Democracy Test."

Two opposition parties, Democratic Choice and the Communists, demanded that Nazarbayev resign "because he failed to keep his promise to ensure democratic elections" and said they would push for a national referendum on people's confidence in the president, AP reported.
Nazarbayev, who has a long record of rigged elections and corruption, had pledge this time would be different. His foreign minister, Kasymzhomart Tokayev, according to the Times, "had promised that the elections would be a test for Kazakhstan's democracy." But Kazakhstan flunked that test. Big time.

BLIND LOYALTY -- Not surprisingly, Kazakh officials saw things differently. Zagipa Baliyeva, director of the Central Election Commission, thought "our elections went splendidly. They were honest and objective." That's probably because her boss's party, Otan, was the big winner in a rigged election where, according to OSCE, "considerable pressure was placed on voters, especially by local officials and workplace supervisors." Baliyeva, who did not say whether she still believes in the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy, responded, "Were you expecting anything else?"

OSCE CONDEMNS VIOLATIONS -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe, which sent 330 election monitors from 33 countries, quickly declared the elections fell short of international standards. There were also 2,000 observers spread around the country by the Network of Independent Monitors, which found unprecedented "unreadiness" and "falsification among the electoral commissions." Human Rights Watch said "this election really discredits Kazakhstan's bid to be known as the democracy of Central Asia." Tom Bridle, of the U.S. National Democratic Institute, said, "We've observed a climate of intimidation all day set by local officials that really undermine confidence in the fairness of these elections."

Kazakhstan's bid to chair OSCE in 2009 could be endangered as a result of Sunday's election in light of the organization's quick criticism of the way it was conducted and OSCE's past criticism of elections, human rights and press freedom in the Central Asian republic. Rather than clean up its act, Kazakhstan, along with Russia and other former Soviet republics, have threatened to stop cooperating with the OSCE if it persists in promoting press freedom, human rights and democratic elections. Like most dictatorships, they consider that interference in their internal affairs and off limits for discussion, although they had signed a 1991 declaration declaring human rights commitments "are matters of direct and legitimate concern" for all.

'LET ME COUNT THE WAYS' -- Irregularities in ballot counting delayed announcing the results by several days, European observers said, and election officials closed their offices mid-count without any explanation. But that didn't stop Nazarbayev's ruling party, Otan, from declaring victory before the vote count had finished or any results were announced.

"The lack of transparency in the work of the Central Election Commission throughout the process, and last-minute decisions on parallel electronic and paper voting created confusion in many polling stations, during voting and counting," said Robert Barry, an OSCE official. More than half of the OSCE observers reported unauthorized people in polling stations during counting.

While Nazarbayev was promising free elections, his minions were putting "considerable pressure" on voters, "especially by local government officials and by supervisors in the workplace," OSCE said.

AND THE WINNER IS....ME -- To no one's surprise, the big winners were Nazarbayev's Otan party, with 43 percent of the vote, and his favorite daughter's Asar party, with about 20 percent -- according to Nazarbayev's own Central Election Commission. The parliament or majilis may be toothless, but this vote tightens the Nazarbayev family's grip on the government since the dictator's daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, is expected to become speaker of parliament and second in the line of succession to her father.

U.S. RAPS KAZAKH VIOLATIONS -- The U.S. Embassy in Astana declared the elections "did not meet the international standards to which Kazakhstan has committed itself," adding that Kazakh authorities failed to "effectively and fairly" follow the law. The United States endorsed the OSCE findings that there was a lack of transparency in the work of election authorities, official interference in the election process, a pro government media bias and irregularities during vote counting, AP reported.

THEY CAN'T COUNT EITHER -- The only good news OSCE could find was some opposition parties were allowed to run and no journalists were jailed or media outlets closed down this time, but this was outweighed by the "politically motivated convictions of two prominent opposition leaders and lack of political balance in the composition of election commissions…(plus) evident media bias in favor of the pro presidential parties." It found "counting and tabulation were problematic."
http://www.osce.org, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/international/asia/21kazakh.html,   http://www.ap.org,  http://www.irish-times.com, http://www.djnewswires.com/, http://news.ft.com/, http://www.afp.com/english/home/

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