Just two months before this year’s elections to local parliaments to be held in September 20, the government is taking another step to display its commitment to democracy, introducing amendments and additions to the existing law on elections which was adopted in May 1999. The newly drafted law, on the surface, eliminates most of the barriers for political parties aspiring to seats in local parliament and offers equal opportunities for all candidates. According to the draft law, political parties, self-governing bodies and civic organizations will have the right to propose members of the election committee, a delicate task which is currently trusted only to local governors.

Another positive side of the proposed law is that it does not limit the number of observers from each public organization or a political party to one, as is the case under the existing law. It also stipulates that authorities must be prosecuted for any violation of electoral regulations. Earlier it was only election committee members who were held legally accountable for bending the rules. To minimize election fraud, the draft law rules out the hitherto widespread practice of using the so-called additional voting lists and re-elections. Also, candidates for the Senate and local parliaments (maslikhats) are entitled to set up their own election funds.

The draft law was instantaneously dubbed by some officials as “a milestone recorded in the history of elections in Kazakhstan”. But not all of them are too enthusiastic about the proposed reform of the election system. Talking to media people, the chairwoman of the Central Election Committee Zagipa Balieva said that the existing law was quite workable in terms of holding fair and transparent elections abiding by rules, and falls nothing short of western election codes. At the same time she disclosed her real anxiety, urging election officials not to take too much heed of criticism from political parties and observers. But she admitted that as soon as the nominations of candidates for local parliaments ended on July 20, reports of violations of electoral regulations were coming in from some regions. She said that this year’s election campaign is likely to become “a too much politicized issue”.

Her apprehensions seem to be justified. On July 23, at a press-conference in Almaty, leaders of the Communist Party, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK), the Pokolenyie movement and the organization of the Slavic community ‘Lad’ announced their decision to set up a joint Coordinating Center to work out a concerted strategy for the pre-election period. According to the activists of this motley coalition, they already have numerous supporters on their side in different parts of Kazakhstan, such as the Democratic Movement of Atyrau, Citizens of Pavlodar and Red East from the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, notorious for its long-standing communist traditions.

One of the unfathomable things about this alliance is that the registration of the DCK had been suspended for 4 months by a court ruling in July. Nevertheless, the Coordinating Center, as their activists claim, has fielded 470 candidates, of which 280 are DCK members. Reporters were stunned to hear from the DCK spokesman Asylbek Kozhakmetov, that the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan has successfully persuaded more than a hundred candidates from the pro-government Otan and Civic Party to come over to the DCK party as soon as they get seats in parliament. Such “disclosures” sound unconvincing, to say the least.

In reality, the government-supported Otan and Civic Party are the hardest nuts for any rival in the forthcoming elections. Privileged and groomed by authorities, these parties do not seek an alliance with other parties. Practically all governors of district levels or their subordinates belong to the all-powerful Otan. A breach of party loyalty is never tolerated in their ranks. A loss of party membership means a simultaneous loss of a high position in a local government office, as it was a case in Mamlyutka district of North Kazakhstan region recently. But the most reliable tool of the Otan party is its seemingly inexhaustible financial resources, which will play no small part in campaigning for seats in parliament.