OSCE Comments on Elections in Kazakhstan, Receives Response.

Urszula Gacek, the head of the OSCE mission, said on November 21 that the elections in Kazakhstan lacked competition. The OSCE report also notes that the ability of citizens to participate in the political life of the country remains limited.

The head of the mission noted that independent candidates are not allowed to run for president. As for the requirements for candidates, they, according to the head of the mission, contradict OSCE commitments and other international standards.

A lack of pluralism played a significant role in undermining competitiveness in this election, and limitations on free speech and a lack of opportunity to conduct peaceful assemblies narrowed the space for critical voices,”

Urszula Gacek.

The mission also pointed out the lack of analytical reports and articles when covering the election campaign in the media. This caused difficulties for voters in making an informed choice.

Urszula Gacek divided the election into two parts. Everything went smoothly in the first one.

"What did we see in the first part? It was a quiet day, election day, the voting procedures were mostly followed, in fact, our observers positively assessed the voting process in 95% of 1,131 cases of observation. In the afternoon, the vote count was rated negatively as bad or very bad in more than half of the observations. Important procedural guarantees were ignored, which raised questions about whether the ballots were counted and whether they were honestly presented,"

Urszula Gacek.

Among the positive aspects, she noted the good preparation of polling stations for people with disabilities. Controversial points, according to her, were also resolved quickly. The Central Election Commission effectively and timely prepared for the elections and live public meetings were held.

Observers noted that the CEC conducted a nationwide comprehensive inclusive campaign to inform voters in Kazakh and Russian.

The snap presidential elections were held the day before, November 20. Those who are abroad were also able to vote. But not everyone had enough ballots.

According to the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Aibek Smadiyarov, there was a shortage of ballots in only two countries. Kazakhstanis abroad, according to him, did not warn the consulates about their intention to vote.

Kazakh Ministery of Foreign Affairs Responds

The ministry said that the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission's statement suffers from a lack of objectivity and calls into question the effectiveness of the Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

The statement, however, contains a set of typical OSCE/ODIHR biased conclusions, demonstrating a complete unwillingness to recognize the development of the internal situation in our country. In the activities of the OSCE/ODIHR observation team and its leadership was clearly seen the mistrust in the reforms carried out by the President of Kazakhstan, aimed at transforming the country and turning it into an advanced society based on the rule of law. The statement of the OSCE/ODIHR Mission, containing unsubstantiated and unconfirmed allegations, is at odds with the conclusions of the missions of all reputable international organizations that also monitored the elections, which again shows its prejudiced nature.

"The OSCE/ODIHR statement in its content indicates the lack of desire to develop long-term and constructive cooperation with the Kazakh authorities, which will undoubtedly be taken into account,"

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov