Translated material
Kazakh SSR
Nazarbayev will have a one-party parliament
It took Kazakhstan 16 years to, having made a new round of the historical spiral, return to Soviet conquests. The country's new parliament, as in Soviet times, will be one-party. Perhaps even more one-party than the Supreme Council of the KazSSR. At that time, deputies from the bloc of communists and non-party members still sat there. Now the latter will not be in the Kazakh Majilis - only members of the Nur Otan (Shine of the Fatherland) party, led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.In the early parliamentary elections held on August 18, Nur Otan retained a landslide victory, receiving more than 88% of the vote. The remaining six parties that participated in the elections did not overcome the seven percent electoral threshold and will not be represented in the Majilis.
This sensational result was the result of a widely publicized campaign to modernize Kazakhstan's political system, initiated by Mr. Nazarbayev. As was emphasized in Astana, the goal of the reform, in particular, is active party building .
Therefore, it was funny to watch yesterday morning news broadcasts of Kazakhstani television with a report from the Central Election Commission, where the first official election results were announced. First, the correspondent, having announced the figures, summed up: “Thus, only one party, Nur Otan, will be represented in the Majilis.” And then the news anchor from the studio continued: “The next stage of political reform in the country has been completed, which will facilitate the activities of political parties.” The announcer from the teleprompter read a pre-prepared text, the meaning of which was completely contrary to the election results.
The OSCE observer mission in Kazakhstan yesterday announced its first preliminary assessments of the elections. It noted "commendable progress" but also said that "a number of international standards were not met, in particular some elements of the new legislation and the vote counting process." In 40% of polling stations visited by observers, this count was “assessed negatively due to a lack of transparency.”
Western observers showed miracles of politeness so as not to offend the hosts who invited them. “Building democracy is a long and difficult task,” said the head of PACE observers, Briton David Wilchard, “but the people of Kazakhstan are showing real progress.” And after him, the head of the OSCE mission in Kazakhstan, Lubomir Kopay, said that “he does not know a single democratic country where only one party is represented in parliament.” The “high threshold for parties to enter parliament” was criticized, and “the preferential attitude of the authorities and state media towards the ruling Nur Otan party” was noted.
Of course, as in the good Soviet times, the electorate was not destined to find out how its expression of will was assessed by Western observers; television was limited only to their “positive” part of the assessments. But the Kazakh “box” was abundantly filled with enthusiastic judgments from guests from China, as well as individual representatives of Israel and even the United States.
Apparently, the skepticism of the OSCE mission did not surprise the country's leadership. Moreover, it expected such assessments. Two days before the elections, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in an interview with the Vesti TV channel, very strongly urged President Putin to stay for a third presidential term: “I don’t understand why the President of Russia should end his presidency and leave.” Nazarbayev does not consider it significant what they will say about Putin’s third term “overseas, what they will say in Europe.” “Everyone can say,” Nazarbayev said, “the president must do what his people and his state need... everything else is nonsense.”
In this emotional speech, the Kazakh leader practically expressed his own philosophy, in which priority over Western values is the belief traditionally rooted in the Kazakh mentality in the need for unity of command, not limited by any terms and conditions. Apologists for this point of view, surrounded by Nazarbayev, believe that this principle is justified by the very history of the Kazakh ethnic group, allowing it to survive under the threat of extermination or enslavement by enemies.
The OSCE mission's assessment of the elections may add doubts about the possibility of a positive consideration in the OSCE at the end of this year of Astana's bid for the right to chair the organization in 2009. But it appears that this ambitious goal, imposed on Kazakhstan and its leadership by Nazarbayev's now-disgraced former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, is becoming a personal burden for Mr. Nazarbayev. Especially after the Austrian authorities refused to extradite Aliyev, who was accused of serious criminal offenses, to Astana, expressing concern that he “would not be guaranteed a fair trial and his human rights would not be ensured.”
However, if it is not significant for Mr. Nazarbayev how his activities are assessed in Europe and in the West in general, then what is the point of continuing the OSCE activities to monitor elections in Kazakhstan? The head of the PACE delegation, David Wilchar, answered this question from VN yesterday very categorically: “I have been working in politics for too long to comment on such statements (made by Nazarbayev in an interview with Russian TV - Ed. ). The people of Kazakhstan suppressed me, and the least I can do is do my job honestly.” It is curious that when, on election day in Kazakhstan, a VN correspondent asked Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission, to comment on Nazarbayev’s advice addressed to Putin, his answer was extremely delicate: “Nazarbayev is a world-class politician, and one cannot help but listen to his words.” However, this remark more likely related to the recommendation for Putin to stay for a third term, rather than to the proposal to consider as “nonsense” what “Princess Marya Aleksevna” would say in the West...
Anyone who doubts that the victory of Nur Otan could seem excessive and too “Turkmen” in scale should have found themselves on the night after the elections in the Old Square of Astana, filled with blue banners of the Nazarbayev party, executed in a good typographical way with banners “We won” ! Those who floated around with these evidence of involvement in the victory were eagerly awaiting the appearance of the election victor - Nursultan Nazarbayev. Those who waited saw a truly happy president. His voice was hoarse, but he smiled in a way he had never smiled anywhere before. The square, which was turned on by two smartly combed young DJs, a Russian and a Kazakh, chanted “Nur Otan, Kazakhstan, Nursultan!” In a word, it was a real holiday!
The leader of the Ak Zhol party, Alikhan Baimenov, was right, who a couple of hours earlier had been tortured by journalists in search of an answer as to why these early elections were needed, since nothing would actually change in the system... Mr. Baimenov tried for a long time to answer politically impeccably, he did not want, in his own words, to look like an oppositionist. Then he waved his hand and blurted out: “The authorities just need to let off some steam!”
Par was released, but Baymenov and his “Ak Zhol” were not allowed into parliament. Having been the only representative of the “constructive” opposition in the previous parliament, Baimenov assured journalists that his party did not expect to win less than 20%. When the Central Election Commission gave Ak Zhol just under 4%, Baimenov told what happened. For example, in his native Karaganda region, the akim came to one of the polling stations, kicked out the members of the district commission and personally summed up the election results. Everything is very simple, says Baymenov, akims (governors) of the regions, counting on promotion, transfer to the capital, compete with each other to see who will provide the most votes to Nur Otan.
It turned out that everyone had overdone it together. As it was in December 2005, when instead of the expected 78-79% for Nazarbayev, instead of the expected exit poll results, he got as much as 91%. The United Social Democratic Party (USDP), led by Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, which took second place, falling just over 2% short of the “passing” 7%, believes that its real figure is at least 30% of the vote. It is worth noting that if it were not for the abolition of elections in single-mandate constituencies, the NSDP could count on several mandates in Almaty, where the opposition enjoys the greatest support.
But in Ak Orda (Nazarbayev’s residence) they decided to stimulate party building, and the majoritarian election system was given a long life. However, so is the multi-party system. In Kazakhstan, if we reinterpret the currently fashionable slogan “One country, one future,” there should also be only one party. The party is the state. We say party, we mean president. In these conditions, Mr. Baymenov, for example, agrees with the assessment of “VN”: these were the last elections for Nazarbayev. Next - eternal and lifelong presidency. And you can let off steam in another way.