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Tuesday, 31 August 2004
KAZAKH OPPOSITION BLOC HINTS AT POSSIBLE ELECTION BOYCOTT
By empty (8/31/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, co-chairman of the coordination council for the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan\'s (DVK) election bloc, told a news conference on 31 August that the bloc has not ruled out boycotting 19 September parliamentary elections. Khozhakhmetov stressed that political parties can decide to boycott elections up to a week before voting begins without suffering legal or financial sanctions. He noted that the two parties, as well as the moderate opposition party Ak Zhol, have previously announced that they might boycott elections unless the government limited electronic voting to an experiment affecting no more than 2-3 percent of the population, released and exonerated imprisoned DVK leader Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov, and provided equal access to the media for all candidates in their election campaigns.
Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, co-chairman of the coordination council for the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan\'s (DVK) election bloc, told a news conference on 31 August that the bloc has not ruled out boycotting 19 September parliamentary elections. Khozhakhmetov stressed that political parties can decide to boycott elections up to a week before voting begins without suffering legal or financial sanctions. He noted that the two parties, as well as the moderate opposition party Ak Zhol, have previously announced that they might boycott elections unless the government limited electronic voting to an experiment affecting no more than 2-3 percent of the population, released and exonerated imprisoned DVK leader Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov, and provided equal access to the media for all candidates in their election campaigns. (Interfax-Kazakhstan)