DUSHANBE, January 17, 2012, Asia-Plus — Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party has won its expected landslide in a January 15 parliamentary election and will be joined in parliament by two other parties, preliminary results show, according to EurasiaNet.org.
Although Kazakhstan”s next parliament will be multi-party, unlike its predecessor in which President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan held all seats, observers doubt the new Mazhilis (lower house) will be genuinely pluralistic. The two parties assuming seats alongside Nur Otan – the pro-business Ak Zhol and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan (KNPK) – are broadly supportive of Nazarbayev and his policies. Genuine opposition forces cried foul, and international observers also found fault with the election.
“Notwithstanding the government”s stated ambition to strengthen Kazakhstan’s democratic processes and conduct elections in line with international standards, yesterday”s early parliamentary vote still did not meet fundamental principles of democratic elections,” observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe-led mission said in a January 16 statement.
Nazarbayev hailed the election as “unprecedented in terms of transparency, openness and honesty.”
With turnout reported at 76 percent, Nur Otan won 81 percent of the vote, a result President Nazarbayev interpreted as “carte blanche” to pursue his strategy.
Ak Zhol and the KNPK also cleared the 7-percent threshold to win seats: Ak Zhol won 7.5 percent of the vote, while the KNPK scraped through with 7.2 percent.
Of the seven parties running only the National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) – whose co-leader Bolat Abilov was disqualified days before the vote – represented a genuine opposition force. OSDP leaders refused to recognize the results of an election they believe was rigged, and have pledged to rally in Almaty on January 17.
“This election took place in a tightly controlled environment, with serious restrictions on citizens’ electoral rights,” concluded Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE observation mission head. “Genuine pluralism does not need the orchestration we have seen – respect for fundamental freedoms will bring it about by itself.”
On the plus side, observers noted voting was “calm” and “technically well administered.”
“If Kazakhstan is serious about their stated goals of increasing the number of parties in parliament, then they should have allowed more genuine opposition parties to participate in this election,” Joao Soares, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly short-term observer mission head, said.
Three genuine opposition parties were barred from competing at all.
Zhanaozen, epicenter of last month’s protests in western Kazakhstan, voted under a state of emergency, with restrictions on freedom of movement and access for journalists, EurasiaNet.org reported.
Nazarbayev said that 70 percent of Zhanaozen residents had voted for Nur Otan, but rights advocates are concerned that residents cast their ballots in an atmosphere of intimidation.
