AP News, August 18th, 2007
Oil-rich Kazakhstan held parliamentary elections Saturday in an early vote widely considered an attempt by the long-ruling president to improve the ex-Soviet republic's democratic image while retaining his grip on power.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has assessed previous elections in post-Soviet Kazakhstan as being less than free and fair. But President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who wants to see his country win the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2009, had pledged to "do everything to make the elections free and fair" this time.
Exit polls indicated that his party had won an overwhelming majority of votes, but the surveys differed on whether any opposition politicians would get seats.
The stability of Kazakhstan, the most prosperous nation in ex-Soviet Central Asia, is of particular importance to regional powers Russia and China because of its substantial oil and gas reserves. The United States has also sought greater access to Kazakh energy resources.
Voters were choosing 98 members of the lower house of parliament in the election, which Nazarbayev had called two years early after a series of constitutional changes. All the seats are to be chosen on a party-list basis, distributed proportionately to parties that get more than 7 percent of the vote. Previously, only 10 seats were chosen on a party basis.
The change was part of a number of constitutional amendments pushed through by Nazarbayev in May that also removed term limits for him and gave him the right to dissolve parliament for virtually any reason. He has led Kazakhstan for 18 years.
After voting Saturday in the capital, Astana, Nazarbayev said the amendments were aimed at uniting the nation and "for the first time, we raise the authority of political parties."
Two exit polls indicated that Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party had won 80 to 83 percent of the vote, while the main opposition group _ the National Social Democratic Party _ received less than 6 percent. It had been seen as the only opposition force likely to get into parliament.
One exit poll showed the moderate opposition party Ak Zhol narrowly clearing the 7-percent barrier, while the other poll indicated it would fall just short.
Choosing the seats entirely by party list leaves small opposition groups and independents virtually no chance of gaining seats. If final results confirm that only Nur Otan got more than 7 percent of the vote, all 98 seats would go to the party _ likely undermining Nazarbayev's claims to be pursuing democracy.
Voter turnout was just under 65 percent nationwide, up from a turnout of 57 percent in the previous parliamentary election in 2004, the elections commission said. It was not clear when results would be announced.
Although this year's campaign was dominated by Nur Otan, the opposition appeared to have better media access than past years. However, the NSDP complained that the country's main television channel, which partially belongs to the state, refused to air some of its campaign advertisements.
The leader of the NDSP, Zharmahan Tyuakbai, said after voting that "we are still far from the ideal of fair elections, although counteractions from the authorities are less compared to the presidential election" in 2005.
The OSCE fielded about 400 observers on Saturday, and is to announce its assessment of the vote on Sunday.
Also Saturday, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and Nazarbayev signed an agreement on building a pipeline that is to ship natural gas from Turkmenistan to China. The agreement followed a deal last month between China and Turkmenistan on a 30-year gas contract.
The agreement on the section of the pipeline crossing Kazakhstan further underlines that country's strategic importance for energy-hungry China. A pipeline pumping Kazakh oil to China went into operation last year. Details of the gas pipeline agreement were not immediately available.
