Kazakhstan's President Reelected in a Landslide

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — As Kazakh voters went to the polls Sunday in an election that returned President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev to another seven-year term amid opposition complaints of irregularities, one of hundreds of international monitors dispatched to the polls wore a flowing beard and a black yarmulke.

"I am probably the first rabbi to be invited as an election observer in a Muslim country, ever," said Avraham Berkowitz, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States, who acted as Israel's delegate to the monitoring mission.

Kazakh presidential election "free", "fair": official

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/05/content_3880948.htm

ASTANA, Dec. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Kazakhstan's presidential election was free and fair, Chairman of the Central Election Commission Onalysn Zhumabekov told the press on Monday.
The election, in which Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev won a landslide re-election victory for another seven-year term, was "transparent, free, competitive and fair," said Zhumabekov.
He described the poll as a "success", adding that it "was a big step forward."

Voting in Kazakhstan's presidential election ended on Sunday night. Polls closed at 1400 GMT in the east, including the capital Astana and main city Almaty, and at 1500 GMT in the west, which includes the Caspian Sea oil hub of Atyrau.
Exit polls showed that Nursultan Nazarbayev has won a landslide victory in his bid for a third term with around 80 percent of the vote in Sunday's election.

An exit poll conducted by the Eurasian rating agency in the Central Asian country gave Nazarbayev 84.55 percent of the vote, with only 9.58 percent for his closest rival, opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbai.
Another challenger, former Labor Minister Alikhan Baimenov, came third with 3.46 percent of the vote. Baimenov was followed by communist candidate Yerasyl Abilkasymov with 1.43 percent and environmentalist Mels Yeleusizov with 0.98 percent.
Another poll of some 16,000 voters by the Kazakhstan Institute for Social and Political Information suggested that Nazarbayev has won 77 percent of the vote while Tuyakbai has pocketed 13.4 percent of the vote.

Two other exit polls also put Nazarbayev's support above 80 percent, with Tuyakbai receiving less than 10 percent

Observers criticise Kazakh president's re-election
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1658274,00.html?gusrc=rss
Monday December 5, 2005

A presidential poll that saw Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan re-elected with 91% of the vote was today criticised by international observers.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had 460 monitors in the oil-rich central Asian nation, said the harassment and intimidation of opposition candidates and their supporters had "limited the possibility for a meaningful competition".
The vote means Mr Nazarbayev, president since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, will be in office for another seven years. The result will reassure oil investors in the United States, China and Russia, who have negotiated billions of dollars worth of contracts with his administration.

The main opposition candidate, Zharmarkhan Tuyakbai, who won less than 7% of the vote, told reporters that the result was "an obvious sign that our country is turning from an authoritarian regime into a totalitarian one".
He said he would take whatever measures he safely could to have the vote declared illegitimate. "We reserve the right to stage public protests," he said. "But we take into consideration the possible response from the authorities and we don't want innocent blood being spilled."

Mr Nazarbayev, speaking in the capital, Astana, said the vote had ruled out a popular revolution such as those that had deposed Soviet-era leaders in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
"We're talking not about revolutions but evolutions," he told reporters. "Kazakhstan voted for calmness and stability."
He dismissed the suggestion that the huge margin of victory was suspicious.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, was the first foreign leader to telephone Mr Nazarbayev to offer congratulations. A group of observers from the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States said the balloting was "free and open". Bruce George, head of the OSCE mission in Kazakhstan, expressing what he said was a personal view, told reporters that the methodology of the Russian observers appeared to be: "be nice to your friends".

The OSCE noted flaws, including restrictions on campaigning, people interfering in polling stations, multiple voting, pressure on students to vote, media bias in favour of the incumbent and legal restrictions on freedom of expression.

Mr Nazarbayev pledged to use his seven-year term to double salaries and pensions. Kazakhstan's economy has grown by 75% since 1998 and its £1,290 per capita gross national income is five times higher than in neighbouring Uzbekistan. "In seven years, the country's economy will double and we will be on the level of eastern European countries in terms of per capita income," he said. The world's ninth-largest country by area, Kazakhstan has vast oil and gas reserves that are a potential alternative to the Middle East.

Mr Nazarbayev has successfully manoeuvred between Washington, Moscow and Beijing. Kazakhstan has called for the US to close central Asian bases as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - a regional organisation dominated by Russia and China - but the country maintains a small troop contingent in Iraq.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.