Tag Archives: election

Kazakh Pres. sacks energy minister

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked former energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik immediately after a parliamentary election. This was part of a government reshuffle that switched several top-bureaucrats in government and local administrations. Mr Shkolnik, the highest-profile government official to be sacked, was replaced by power sector veteran Kanat Bozumbayev.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Nur Otan drops Dariga Nazarbayeva as MP

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – ALMATY — The results of the parliamentary elections may have been expected but there was a surprise lined up. A few days days after the vote the Nur Otan party dropped Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, from its list of MPs (March 24).

The Conway Bulletin’s Central Asia newswire service (the Silk Road Intelligencer) broke the news on Thursday that Ms Nazarbayeva’s had been dropped by Nur Otan as an MP.

MP in 2012-14 and also held the post of deputy PM since last September, was in line to return to the lower house of Parliament and be nominated as speaker.

This would have granted her a powerful and respected position and also signalled that she was being lined up as a potential successor for her 75-year-old father as Kazakhstan’s second post-Soviet president.

There has been no explanation to the apparent change of plan but it set off various theories on the Kazakh presidential succession issue.

And last week, too, Ms Nazarbayeva’s son, 31-year-old Nurali Aliyev, quit as deputy mayor of Astana apparently to pursue business interests.

This effectively means that in one week, two key members of the president’s family have taken a step back from influential political positions.

One theory previously been put forward for Kazakhstan’s succession issue was that Ms Nazarbayeva would take over in the short term as president before making way for her son. That now appears off the agenda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Editorial: Kazakh Pres. daughter’s moves

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Observers expected one major outcome from Kazakhstan’s parliamentary election. Dariga Nazarbayeva’s nomination as an MP and her ascendency to be parliament’s Speaker, an important constitutional role and a stepping stone to higher office. But it didn’t come through.

Has she fallen out with her father, the 75-year-old Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev? Her son, Nurali Aliyev, resigned as deputy mayor of Astana earlier this month. Coincidences are rare in Kazakh politics.

Is she adopting a more low-key approach? This could be one way of dodging future tough austerity policies that the government will inevitably adopt to survive a worsening economic crisis.

Whatever the greater game plan is, one thing is for sure. Kazakhstan’s succession issue will once again dominate Kazakh politics.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Nur Otan wins Kazakh election with 82%

MARCH 20/21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – ALMATY — Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party won a parliamentary election with 82% of the vote, although Western monitors said that the vote was not fair.

The result is a near mirror image of a parliamentary election in 2012. Nur Otan scored 81% of the vote four years ago and the quasi-opposition parties Ak Zhol and the People’s Communist Party, which are both pro-President Nazarbayev, polled 7% in 2012 and 2016.

European vote monitors said that the election was broadly unfair although, importantly there had been some progress on previous elections.

Marietta Tidei, the head of the OSCE’s monitoring mission for the Kazakh election, said that Kazakhstan still had some way to go to meet what Europe would consider to be a free and democratic election.

“The ruling party had a clear advantage over others in these elections and, while the parties were generally able to campaign freely, genuine political choice remains insufficient,” she said.

Europe’s main vote monitoring watchdog, the OSCE’s ODHIR, has never judged an election in Kazakhstan to be free and fair.

For the Kazakh authorities, though, the election was important as it imposes more stability on the country just as the economy appears to worsen.

Still, a Conway Bulletin correspondent in Almaty said it was difficult finding people who voted for Nur Otan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s party. Turn out in Almaty was only 34%, the lowest in the country.

Nurbek didn’t vote. His comments on why he didn’t think it was worth voting in the election were broadly representative.

“I don’t think there is any point in voting because my vote is not really going to change anything,” he said.

“Elections are just a play to pretend we have some sort of democracy which we obviously don’t.”

Still, somedid vote and they chose Nur Otan.

“We voted for Nur Otan. There were many parties but with Nur Otan our future is certain,” said a couple who declined to be named as they strolled through Almaty.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Kazakh election looms

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhs prepared to vote in a parliamentary election on Sunday, brought forward by a year after parliament said it had achieved its remit early. The election is expected to be a straightforward affair with the ruling Nur Otan party, which won 82% of the vote at the last election in 2012, winning easily again.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Georgia drops religion bill

FEB. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament unexpectedly dropped a bill that would have made insulting religion a crime. The bill’s sponsor, an MP for the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, withdrew the bill after it ran into a barrage of controversy for effectively clamping down on free speech. The suspicion was that Georgian Dream was using the bill to try and shore up support amongst supporters of Georgia’s Orthodox Church ahead of a parliamentary election later this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Kazakh president orders spending spree

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his government to spend more than 360b tenge ($1b) building houses and supporting small and medium-sized businesses, a policy he hopes will both stimulate Kazakhstan’s flatlining economy and cement support for his Nur Otan party ahead of parliamentary elections next month.

His plan also involves trying to protect both Kazakhstan’s $4b national pension pot by diversifying investments into other currencies and second tier banks by buying up their bonds, a form of financial aid.

With more data showing that low oil prices and a devalued currency have dragged down Kazakhstan’s economy, Mr Nazarbayev appears to have decided that now is the moment to be bold.

“Many countries have found themselves in a difficult situation and are forced to cut social spending, suspend projects, resulting in rising unemployment. Yet we continue building industrial facilities and open new markets,” he told a government meeting. “At the centre of all my orders are the needs of the common man, his well-being and stability.”

Three government financial insti- tutions — the Baiterek Holding company, the House Building Bank of Kazakhstan and the Samruk Kazyna sovereign wealth fund — will admin- ister funds for the house building spending spree, official media reported. The $1b will come from pushing cash earmarked for a social spending in 2017 forward by a year.

Mr Nazarbayev likes to act the father figure, looking after the Kazakh people during times of hardship. This showed through with his emphasis on looking after the common man. He said that his spending plans would create 18,000 jobs, build 42 new schools and extend and improve the electric grid system.

“Full and effective utilisation of funds allocated for the implementation of these measures will stimulate economic activity, support employment and add 1% into economic growth in 2016,” he said.

If Mr Nazarbayev needed a reminder of the battle he faces to turn around the economy, it came from the Central Bank. It said the country’s deficit measured $5.3b in 2015, a result of the currency depreciation. The tenge halved in value in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Nur Otan packs celebrities onto election list

JAN. 29 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nur Otan, the political party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has packed its list of candidates for next month’s parliamentary election with sportsmen, singers and other household names — reflecting both its status as the establishment party and also its drive to boost its popular appeal.

Candidates for the 127-seat lower house of parliament include champion boxer Gennady Golovkin, Olympic weighlifting gold medal winner Ilya Ilin, and pop stars Zhanar Dugalova and Kairat Nurtas as well as Dariga Nazarbayeva, Mr Nazarbayev’s daughter, and the ex- mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yesimov.

Kazakh political analyst, Adil Nurmakov, said that although Nur Otan had used this strategy previously, they were employing it particularly heavily for this election.

“It is an attempt by the ruling party to position itself as a popular force among celebrities truly loved by the people. I see it as a primitive electoral technique. It has been used numerous times in the past,” he said.

Last month, Mr Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March 20, a year earlier than it had been scheduled for, officially because the current parliament had fulfilled its remit.

Analysts, though, said it was called early to head off civil strife as the economic climate worsens. On the streets of Almaty, reaction to the celebratory packed party list was mixed.

“Sportsmen are also people. If the Parliament has sportsmen there will be more discipline,” said Maksat, a sales distributor.

Others were less impressed.

“A deputy should be a person with special education not just a regular boxer or a singer,” said Zinaida Trinojenko, a PR specialist. “It is a delusion.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakh leader calls for early election

JAN. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March 20, more than a year ahead of schedule. Officially MPs asked him to bring the election forward from 2017 because they said that they had fulfilled their mandate. Unofficially, the Kazakh political elite appear to be increasingly worried about civil disobedience linked to worsening economic conditions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

Kazakhstan signals early parliamentary election

JAN. 13 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will likely hold a parliamentary election this year after MPs officially asked President Nursultan Nazarbayev to dissolve the current parliament.

They said that parliament had achieved the mandate it was given at the start of the current parliamentary cycle, although with the Kazakh economy in a perilous state, they may also have decided that it would be far better to deal with an election now rather than wait until 2017.

Kazakhstan’s 107-seat Lower Chamber voted unanimously to approve the dissolution of parliament in what was likely a choreographed decision. All 107 seats are held by pro-Nazarbayev MPs with his Nur Otan party dominating the chamber.

Last year, Kazakhstan also brought forward its presidential election by two years, officially to avoid a clash with the parliamentary election set for 2017.

Election monitors said that by bringing forward the presidential election, Mr Nazarbyaev was able to wrong foot opponents and secure an easy re-election.

Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has never held an election judged free and fair by Western election monitors.

Under Kazakh law, after officially consulting with the Speakers of the Lower and Upper Chambers of Parliament as well as with Prime Minister, President Nazarbayev can call an early parliamentary election.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)