OSCE: Kazakh parliamentary election fails democratic promise

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kazakhstan's tightly controlled parliamentary election fell short of its democratic promise by limiting the number of genuine opposition parties and restricting citizens' rights, the OSCE's observation mission said on Monday, January 16.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's election observation mission said several parties had been blocked from Sunday's election and public debate was limited in the run-up to the vote.

Three parties won entry to Kazakhstan's parliament in a vote offering a small concession to democracy in the Central Asian state by guaranteeing an end to one-party rule. The ruling Nur Otan party won a landslide victory with more than 80 percent of the vote.

The OSCE mission, which comprised about 400 observers, said genuine opposition parties had been barred from the election and that some candidates had been de-registered.

The OSCE mission said media had operated "in an environment characterised by self-censorship" and that excessive restrictions were placed on candidate eligibility.

On election day itself, the OSCE said voting was assessed positively in 91.4 percent of polling stations visited nationwide, but that flaws observed at 8.6 percent of stations indicated "serious and systematic shortcomings".

These include voters without proper identification being able to cast ballots, group voting and voting for somebody else. Twenty-two cases of ballot box stuffing were observed. It said counting and tabulation was "lacking in transparency," Reuters reported.

“If Kazakhstan is serious about its stated goals of increasing the number of parties in parliament, then the country should have allowed more genuine opposition parties to participate in this election,” RIA Novosti quoted Joao Soares, who heads the OSCE’s short-term observer mission, as saying.

Earlier on Monday Bulat Abilov, the leader of the opposition National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) declared the polls “illegitimate.”