Nursultan Nazarbayev Wins Presidential Elections by Landslide
04-04-2011
Astana, April 4. Preliminary results show that Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, has won re-election by 95.5.
Election authorities reported a turnout of 89.9% at the polling stations. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Kuandyk Turgankulov announced that Mr Nazarbayev's opponents Zhambyl Akhmetbekov - gained 1.4% of the vote, Mels Yeleussizov - 1.2% and Gani Kassymov - 1.9%.
"My Presidential election victory is a victory for Kazakhstan" said Nazarbayev. "Once again, Kazakhstan demonstrated its aspiration for unity to the world.”
The President then thanked members of his Nur Otan People's Democratic Party for their hard work during the election campaign.
Head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Observation Mission stated: "PACE has observed elections in Kazakhstan in the past and is pleased to state progress from one election to another in this country. The delegation is united in its view that despite certain imperfections that invariably mar all elections in any country, the outcome of this vote truly reflects the will of Kazakhstan’s electorate".
PACE was quite satisfied with the organization of the elections: "The authorities responsible for the election’s organization have done good work and have demonstrated a high level of professionalism. The voting stations were well equipped and the atmosphere of the electoral process was calm. Voter turnout was high which proves the people's trust in elections".
Sergey Lebedev, Head of the CIS observation mission said: "All the necessary conditions for international observation were founded in the country. This proves transparency of the electoral process”. He also declared Kazakhstani legislation meets the regulations of the convention on standards of democratic elections, electoral rights and freedoms of the CIS member-states, however, "some norms of the law 'On election' might be clarified".
Muratbek Imanaliyev, Head of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Observers' Mission also said the elections were free and transparent: “The Mission considers that the elections were free and open, meeting all requirements of the national legislation and international election standards." According to Imanaliyev, SCO Mission members had arrived at the voting stations an hour before voting and they observed the preparation of ballots and boxes. The SCO observers visited 31 voting stations in Astana, Almaty and Karaganda.
Observers of the Turkic-speaking Countries Parliamentary Assembly (TURKPA) said the elections fully met with democratic standards. Aidyn Mirzazade, Head of the TURKPA Observers' Mission, Deputy of Azerbaijan Parliament, said at a briefing "that the electoral process was calm and all stages of the electoral process were quite positive. The work of the Central Election Commission was transparent", he added. "We assess the presidential elections in Kazakhstan as legitimate and meeting all international democratic standards.”
However, these mainly positive assessments by numerous local and international observers stand in contrast with the preliminary conclusions of the OSCE/ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The press release on the observers’ statement particularly notes that “needed reforms for holding genuine democratic elections still have to materialize as this election revealed shortcomings similar to those in previous elections.”
In his interview to the “Novosty Kazakhstan” agency right after the release of the OSCE Mission’s report the Adviser to President Yermukhmet Yertysbayev said that there were “nothing terrible, nothing reprehensible or negative in the OSCE/ODIHR’s report for the Kazakh elections. The choice in favour of Nazarbayev is his real rating and result”.
“They (observers) should answer to one question: was there an adulteration of the elections, is the result real? And the rest are secondary details. From this point of view all the international observers emphesized that the eletions were fair and transparent”, Yertysbayev said.
Materials of the following web-resources have been used during preparation of this News Digest: www.akorda.kz, www.kazakhstanlive.kz, www.inform.kz, www.kaztag.kz, www.osce.org, www.newskaz.ru
