Overdid it

The Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan exaggerated Nazarbayev's victory

Yesterday, Kazakh journalists received a facsimile of a letter sent by the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan, Onalsyn Zhumabekov, to the head of the presidential administration, Adilbek Dzhaksybekov (see photo) . The habit of officials to maintain subordination in relations with their superiors made it possible to document what was obvious to many both in Kazakhstan and abroad. The final results of the presidential elections in Kazakhstan on December 4 were “released” to the Central Election Commission from the presidential administration and have nothing to do with the real expression of the will of voters.

And to call a spade a spade, the leadership of Nazarbayev’s administration decided to give their patron an election victory (which few actually doubt) with figures exceeding the actual voting results. This is precisely what explains the confusion in the ranks of Kazakh sociologists, who discovered that the exit poll data conducted by several sociological services differed little from each other, 11-15% differed from the figures shown by the Central Election Commission.

As a result, the Central Election Commission found itself in a piquant situation. It turned out to be extremely difficult to combine the preliminary election results, already “announced” and “agreed” with the presidential administration, with the data of “local bodies focused on other indicators.” One high-ranking official writes to another, struggling to contain his emotions: “...Local authorities... are taking extraordinary measures to achieve the tasks assigned to them.” Apparently, the “tasks” of the authorities turned out to be unsolvable. Despite the CEC’s public promises to sum up the election results within 24 hours, this failed even after 96 hours. The opposition turned out to be to blame, observers from whom “in a number of regions protocols from a large number of settlements were handed over.”

The “guilty” were not long in coming. Yesterday, the headquarters of opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, based on the protocols received, provided data on several regions. For example, in the Atyrau region, according to the Central Election Commission, 20,748 voters voted for him. And based on the protocols, according to the count of only 91 polling stations out of 224, it follows that at least 25 thousand people voted for Tuyakbai.

One does not look a gift horse in the mouth, but one cannot envy Nursultan Nazarbayev the gift he received from his “well-wishers.”

Arkady DUBNOV