Friday, March 29

Observers from the IPA CIS discussed the peculiarities of the election campaign in Kazakhstan with its participants

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International observers from IPA CIS held meetings in Astana with the leadership of the headquarters of the candidates for President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Zhiguli Dairabayev. They discussed the course of election campaign, peculiarities of campaign work, and innovations in elections.

At the headquarters of the candidate to President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev the secretary of “Amanat” party (is a part of coalition of three parliamentary parties and 30 republican movements which supported the candidate) Daulet Karibek told the observers about the basic directions of work in pre-election period.

“The main emphasis is on live meetings, from monologue to dialogue, discussions,” emphasized the party secretary. He said that the candidate – the current president of the country – has more than 30 thousand proxies, who represent him at both the national and local levels.

“The program, with which our candidate goes – is not fixed, supplemented by suggestions of citizens, to date we have received about 40 thousand of them,” said Daulet Karibek.

One of the priorities is work with youth: 50 percent of the country’s population is under 35. A strong youth wing of the election headquarters has been established; social networks and youth formats are actively used for campaigning; there is interaction with opinion leaders.

At the meeting the preparation of observers was also discussed – according to the head of the HQ, there will be more than 20 thousand observers from the coalition, which nominated the candidate, two of them at each polling station.

Responding to the questions of the observers, the party secretary expressed the conviction that equal conditions have been provided to all candidates, “the debate is in the context of the election programs. He positively assessed the return of the column “against all” in the ballot paper and called it a step towards democratization along with other steps: lowering the registration threshold for parties to 5 thousand signatures, lowering the threshold for political parties to enter the Majilis, establishing the institute of parliamentary opposition, etc.

IPA CIS Secretary General Dmitry Kobitsky spoke about the composition of the monitoring group, which consists of 67 people, and underlined that observers from IPA CIS adhere to principles of objectivity, non-politicization and non-interference in elections.

The monitoring group also met with the leaders of the Republican Public HQ of Zhiguli Dairabayev, a presidential candidate nominated by the People’s Democratic Patriotic Party “Auyl”.

Ivan Mushket, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council and Director of MIMRD, spoke about how observers monitor the elections and what issues are in their focus.

“Your participation in monitoring of elections is the recognition of trust to Kazakhstani political system,” noted Toleutai Rakhimbekov, Chief of Staff, welcoming the observers.

He noted that the country’s second largest party had no difficulty collecting the necessary number of signatures for the candidate. “The elections are held on a tight schedule, but as we know, the preparation for the elections begins on the second day after the previous elections – politicians should always be ready to join the fight,” said the representative of Auyl party.

In the current campaign, 1,154 people are working in the headquarters – twice as many as in the last parliamentary elections. More than 2.5 thousand meetings with voters were held.

“We didn’t see any resistance from the executive branch or from the electoral commissions”, – said the head of the headquarters answering the questions of observers.

He also assessed as equal opportunities for all candidates to campaign in the media and at meetings with voters. The HQ noted that along with official media – still important for rural audience – almost all major social networks are used for campaigning.

International observers from the IPA CIS have arrived in Astana today for short term monitoring of the Presidential elections. Ahead of the observers there are meetings with the leadership of the Central Election Commission, the Parliament of the country and work at the polling stations.

Source: site of the Interparliamentary Assembly of States

 

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