Oil-Rich Kazakhstan Votes, Poll Criticized by West
Date: 21-Sep-04
Country: KAZAKHSTAN
Author: Michael Steen
The election for members of the vast Central Asian state's lower house is seen as a test of Kazakhstan's ability to match economic growth with political plurality by holding its first free poll in a region dominated by authoritarian leaders.
The biggest challenge faced by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Otan (Fatherland) party came from his eldest daughter Dariga's new Asar (All Together) party, which has borrowed opposition rhetoric but supports the president.
"We've already said the election campaign was neither equitable nor free," said Bulat Abilov, a leader of opposition party Ak Zhol (Bright Path), who has been banned from running after a court ruled that he libeled another politician.
"All that remains is to confirm that the voting is unfair."
Otan and Asar have dominated the media and been aided by local authorities, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the poll, has said.
"What's already discredited the elections at this point is that the government failed to create a level playing field during the campaign," said Acacia Shields, senior Central Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
At a polling station in Almaty, the ex-Soviet republic's biggest city, a trickle of people voted in bright blue booths.
"I think the elections should be fair this time," said Polina, a pensioner from Almaty. "We live better than other countries (in Central Asia). They increased our pension, I think things will get better."
BAR CODES
About one in 10 polling stations is equipped with electronic voting technology bought from Belarus, which the opposition and independent election monitors say could intimidate voters.
The machines read a bar code, such as used by supermarkets, stuck to an elector's identity card. Although officials say the vote will remain secret, there have been reports of students, teachers and state employees being told that their superiors will know if they fail to vote Otan.
Under Nazarbayev's 15-year rule, Kazakhstan has modernized its economy and started to tap its enormous mineral wealth, but corruption is rampant and political power concentrated in the hands of the president and his immediate advisers.
"The president is surrounded by various economic groups who control certain parts of the economy that are sucking Kazakhstan dry," said Information Minister Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, an Ak Zhol member and the only opposition member in the government put together by Nazarbayev. "He is the hostage of a situation he created - the privatizations of 1995-96, the Giffen case, and the part of his family that controls sections of the economy," said Sarsenbaiuly, pledging to resign his post if the poll is rigged.
The trial in New York of businessman James Giffen, accused by federal prosecutors of paying Nazarbayev and a former prime minister $78 million in bribes for oil contracts won by Western companies, has cast a shadow over Nazarbayev's presidency.
He strongly denies wrongdoing and Kazakh broadcast media have avoided the topic but any embarrassing testimony during the trial could cause discomfort at home.
Dariga Nazarbayeva denies that her entry into politics is a sign that she is being groomed as a possible successor.
But Kazakhstan's potential as a major oil producer - it should be in the top 10 by 2015 - keeps foreigners interested.
"For us, and for the nation, the key question is whether the development of a free, democratic, transparent Kazakhstan is important to the West," said Sarsenbaiuly.
"Or do they just need our oil?"
