The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday that Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections “did not meet key democratic principles."
“Notwithstanding the government’s stated ambition to strengthen Kazakhstan’s democratic processes and conduct elections in line with international standards, yesterday’s early parliamentary vote still did not meet fundamental principles of democratic elections,” read the OSCE statement, published on its website.
The OSCE also noted that despite the fact that the January 15 elections were carried out professionally, “the counting process significantly lacked transparency and respect for procedures, with cases of fraud.”
The elections were won by the pro-presidential Nur Otan party, which had taken 80.74 percent of the vote by Monday morning. The second and third placed parties trailed far behind, with the pro-business Ak Zhol on 7.46 percent of the vote and the Communist Party on 7.2 percent, according to election commission head Kuandik Turgankulov.
OSCE observers said that several political parties were blocked from running in the polls and a number of candidates were “de-registered without due process.”
“If Kazakhstan is serious about its stated goals of increasing the number of parties in parliament, then the country should have allowed more genuine opposition parties to participate in this election,” said Joao Soares who heads the OSCE’s short-term observer mission.
Earlier on Monday Bulat Abilov, the leader of the opposition National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) declared the polls “illegitimate.”
Abilov, who was banned from participating in the polls for submitting what the authorities said was a fake income declaration, promised ahead of the polls to hold nationwide protests on January 17 if the party believed the elections to have been unfair.
