By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Representatives of Ak Zhol announced at a press conference in Almaty on 27 October that the moderate opposition party is sponsoring a nationwide referendum to annul the results of the 19 September parliamentary elections, \"Kazakhstan Today\" reported. A demonstration on 30 October will put forward the initiative to hold the referendum. The planned referendum will ask six questions: whether land sales should be halted until local administrative heads are elected, whether the direct election of administrative heads should be introduced in 2005, whether revenues from the sale of natural resources should be distributed directly and equally among all Kazakh citizens, whether half of parliament should be elected on the basis of party slates, whether 20 percent of voters should be able to initiate the recall of any elected official, and whether the results of the 19 September parliamentary elections should be invalidated.

By empty (10/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A visiting delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has raised various human rights issues during a four-hour meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. Topics discussed included corruption and the repatriation to Georgia of the Meskhetians deported on Soviet leader Josef Stalin\'s orders in 1944. Georgia pledged on admission to the Council of Europe in 2000 to allow all Meskhetians who wish to do so to settle in Georgia by 2010.

By empty (10/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

On a three-day visit to Tbilisi from 22-24 October, President Robert Kocharian met with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and parliamentary speaker Nino Burdjanadze to discuss transportation and various aspects of bilateral relations. Kocharian and Saakashvili also discussed coordinating their respective countries\' efforts to expand cooperation with the EU within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy, and the potential for cooperation between the three Baltic states and the three states of the South Caucasus. At a joint news conference on 22 October, Saakashvili expressed the hope that additional funding will be found for the planned new highway from Tbilisi to the predominantly Armenian-populated region of Djavakheti in southern Georgia.