Possibly, the reader is a little tired of the pre-election race, which is being widely illuminated by the Kazakhstan press. Let�s relax and look at the life of our neighbours, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. What is the situation in the frontier between these republics after the known events in the south of Kyrgyzstan? What is the condition of the rural population?
Astana is a rapidly growing and intensively constructed town. However, the unemployment problem observed in the capital, especially among persons who arrived here hoping to settle their affairs, is still sharp.
We propose you materials of the Kazakh Service of Radio �Liberty� (KSRL).
In the end of our today�s review �Liberty in Kazakh� we propose you to read the material of a KSRL journalist devoted to the work of the Parliament, which will be dismissed soon. According to the journalist, now deputies think about the only thing, how they could stay in the Parliament for another period.
Life of the neighbours
After the events in Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan completely closed its frontiers. The Kyrgyzs living near the border cannot communicate, as roads are common. The trade turnover between the neighbours reduced. Besides, in the beginning of September, Uzbekistan stopped supplying gas to Kyrgyzstan due to the debt in the amount of US$ 2 million. Every day the Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations are getting worse, both at the official level and between the common people. We saw this, when we visited the south of Kyrgyzstan and Jalalabad region.
Let�s compare the live of the population in these republics. 9600 people live in the frontier Kyrgyz ail Kashkasu. This is a former collective-farm centre. Five to six years ago collective farms were liquidated, and 7 to 8 farms were established instead of them. These farms were also unsuccessful.
The chairman of the ail board said in his interview to KSRL: �Land was transferred to the population and they have instrument. Let them earn money, as they want. They do whatever they can. Each citizen of the ail received 1 hectare of irrigated and 11 hectares of suitable land. There are also haying lands and pastures for livestock. In comparison with Kazakhstan, taxes on land are very low. Tax on 1 hectare of land was reduced from 460 som to 230 som. This is 675 tenge, i.e. US$ 5. Taxes on haying lands are even less. But our population cannot give up old conceptions. They do not want to do anything. They ask for tractors and petrol, but do not make any efforts themselves.�
There are a few people who listen to the ail Akim, but nevertheless, there is an obvious shift of the Kyrgyz from cattle-breeding to farming. There are a lot of fertile lands and water in the south of Kyrgyzstan. But the problem is, where they can supply agricultural products? Bishkek is faraway, and transport charges are not justified, and products� price is getting up significantly. That is why the southern Kyrgyzstan had traditionally tight connections with Uzbekistan. Now the neighbour is closing the borders.
Practically nearby Kashkasu, there is an Uzbek kishlak Nanai (Namangan region). 23 thousand people live there. Collective farms still exist in Uzbekistan. The average salary of a collective-farmer is 1500 to 2000 soms, i.e. US$ 3 to 3.5. But people do not receive in time this money. Money may be given once in a year, sometimes in the form of products. Uzbekistan still has the state plan, and collective-farmers receive techniques, and fuel. Then almost all the harvest is taken by the state. The share of each citizen in Uzbekistan is 0.05 hectares of irrigated land, while in Kyrgyzstan � 1 hectare, i.e. 20 times more.
�I have four children. I am a specialist with a high education. My salary of a teacher is 2000 soms. My husband sews hats and sells them.� We borrowed money and built a house,� a citizen of the kishlak says.
On the whole, if we compare the standard of life of the Uzbek population with the Kyrgyz one, it is very low. The Uzbeks often are hired by the Kyrgyzs and do any work for the miserable payment (approximately 45 tenge per day). There is a market near the border between the two countries, where you may hire manpower.
There are some Uzbeks who lease Kyrgyz lands. The rent of 1 hectare of land costs 5000 soms, i.e. US$ 115. The enterprising Uzbeks gain whatever it is possible from this land, and completely cover their expenses.
�This is a very dangerous process, as the Uzbeks who were leasing the land for a long time, later buy the land. At last this may result in a big conflict,� the editor of the Kyrgyz newspaper says.
The similar process is being observed in the southern Kazakhstan, in Shymkent region.
Astana receives guests
According to the official data, unemployment among the active Kazakhstan population is 4.2%. however, this is information registered by the recruitment bureau. That is why the official bodies have to admit that the number of unemployed people is significantly more. This is especially obvious in the province, where the social-economic situation is worse that in the capital.
A great number of unemployed people are coming to the capital, which is being constructed, from all regions of the republic. These people hope to find a job. But for many unemployed people, who stand from morning to evening at the constructional objects, e.g. at the National Museum or at the Eurasian University, the hope to find a job seems unrealisable. This is proved by opinions of the following people:
- I came here from the village of Shortan. I worked in the agriculture for 32 years. Now I have no work. My family consists of 7 persons, and I did not work for 2 months.
- I came to the capital from the town of Atbasar 2 months ago. Private companies either do not hire me, or if they hire, they deceive and do not pay. I worked 10 days for one company, and received nothing. I had to leave them. Now I came here. My speciality is a tractor-driver. I drove a tractor for 25 years.
- I also came from Shortan. My situation is very difficult. I eat bread and water. I worked as a tractor-driver, I have driving license, but no work. I came with my family, and we do not have our own house. We lease a flat for 15 thousand tenge per month. Now we have no money to pay for the flat, and the master threatens to turn us out of the flat.
- I did not work for 2 months. When you work at small private companies, in a month or two they close.
- Almost for a year I cannot receive earned money from a constructional company. Since that time I did not work, though I am from Astana and live here. Many foreign companies try to hire people without Kazakhstan citizenship (refugees from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan). As these people have less rights, they may be paid a small salary and systematically delay their wages.
- Yes, it�s true, we saw representatives of one company calling people of their nationality and writing down their names. Tomorrow these people will be hired. While we having official registration and living here, cannot find a job.
- They demand a medical certificate and other documents. Work is very difficult. But if I were healthy and not sure in myself, I would not come here. The medical certificate costs 800 tenge, temporary registration � 400 tenge, but where can we find money? If we had this money in the pocket, would we come here?
Deputies consider the budget and hope to enter the new Parliament
In the last week deputies of the Mazhilis, having considered the budget� 2000, proposed by the Finance Ministry, approved it and transferred to the Senate for consideration. Obviously, parliamentarians are rather anxious with the coming election to the Mazhilis, that with this important question. Evidently, deputies are constantly dreaming about the new Parliament. They consider 5 years of the Parliamentary �sitting� is not enough, and they are eager to receive their mandate again.
The four-hours report of the Finance Minister was heard at the meeting. And parliamentarians were satisfied with the report.
In one of our last programs we said that the chairman of the businessmen�s confederation had announced: �The government is continuing its anti-social policy while approving the budget for the next year.�
The chairman of the confederation expressed his dissatisfaction with not only creators of the bill on the budget, but with deputies for their hurry. The chairman also expressed his attitude to the law on labour. He is absolutely against this bill in its present form.
People�s representatives, who 5 years ago promised to improve the live of their electorate, approved the budget in the same form, as it had been proposed by the government. Thus, pensioners have lost their privileges forever.
During the last election pensioners, who votes for the present deputies, are not necessary to their deputies, who even did not try to defend their rights. On the other hand, it is possible to understand parliamentarians, who are thinking only about the next election. Who wish to lose a soft armchair?
THE GLOBE, basing on materials of the Kazakh Service of Radio �Liberty�
September 12 to 19
(Translated from Kazakh by THE GLOBE)
Beibars BATYRKHANOV
Michail SERGEEV
ALMATY, Sept 17
(THE GLOBE)
On the last Thursday the public debates of three candidates to the Mazhilis from different election districts were held in the State Architectural-Constructional Academy.
Pyotr Svoik, the co-chairman of �Azamat� party, Lira Baiseitova, the chairman of �Republic 2000� movement and Gani Kasymov, a self-nominated candidate disputed and answered to students� questions.
THE GLOBE proposed the Reader the most interesting extracts from their speeches.
Mr. Kasymov called the audience to vote not for parties, but for independent candidates, as parties� candidates �were covering with the parties and movements to collect votes and they would not present in the Parliament interests of their electors, but parties� charters.�
In reply to this Pyotr Svoik stated that the �parliamentarism� of long persons was nonsense. �Such a Parliament we see in Kazakhstan, when the main legislative body of the country approves direction stipulated by the executive power,� he emphasised.
Lira Baiseitova affirmed, �to make the Parliament independent, independent people should enter it� and she referred herself to these people.
Then candidates to the Mazhilis shared their opinions regarding the composition of the new Parliament.
�Azamat� is going to take part in the election to make it a real multi-party legislative body and overcome the influence of �the personal power� regime,� Mr. Svoik said.
Gani Kasymov hopes that in the future the block of independent deputies will be established in the Parliament �to give battle to parties loyal to the authorities.�
In her own turn, Mrs. Baiseitova emphasised that the main thing is rapprochement of the opposition ranks.
�Only a serious opposition block in the new Parliament is able to change something,� the chairman of the movement stated.
Then all three candidates called the audience to come to the election and to vote. Otherwise, Pyotr Svoik said, �election commissions will vote instead of electors.�
Erkanat ABENI ALMATY, Sept 17 (THE GLOBE)
�There was an uncontrolled situation during the election to the Upper House of the Parliament. I am sure that the election results were falsified,� one of the former candidates to the Senate announced on Friday in Almaty.
According to Sabir Kasymov, in the Almaty Maslikhat, where the election was held, all measures excluding falsification of bulletins were not taken. For example, the election commission did not annihilate extra bulletins, while observers were kept at a distance.
Mr. Kasymov stated that after the poll results had been announced, observers had doubted that there had been no falsification and had offered the chairman of the election commission to open the envelop with the bulletins.
The chairman of the election commission categorically rejected to do this, referring to the Law �On elections�. �I am one of people, who prepared and approved this law, and logically, if there is no objections of electors, we may announce the content of bulletins,�
Sabir Kasymov believes that electors were pressed by the authorities, as many of them occupy high posts. Naturally, their fear to lose the armchair is higher than democratic principles. Besides, some electors are candidates to the Mazhilis and local maslikhats. �They were warned before the election, that if those candidates were not be elected, they would not be elected at the election to be held on October 10,� Mr. Kasymov stated referring to his own sources.
�I am afraid that the new senate will be dismissed under the pretence of illegality,� the former candidate to the senators resumed.
Zarema Shaukenova,
Candidate of Psychology,
Director of the Institute of Comparative Social Researches (ICSR-Kazakhstan)
Astana, Sept 20 (Specially for THE GLOBE)
In the modern states national elections are the symbol of political legality of the regime. Of course, it is impossible to make the role of elections absolute and to consider elections as the only connection between the citizen and the state. But elections were and still are one of the most uniting types of the political activity. The low level of electors� activity is an indicator of the trend of gradual destruction of the connection between the state and the population.
In the western countries the total level of activity is surprisingly stable. For example, during the Parliamentary election of 1992 in Austria 84.4% of the electors took part in the voting. In the Parliamentary elections of 1991 and 1996 in Italy this index was respectively 87.3 and 82.9. In the Parliamentary election of 1994 in Germany 79% of the electorate took part and so on. Though each of the countries has its own and, strictly speaking, different reasons for decay and raises of electors� activity, on the whole the stability of this activity is the result of multi-years tradition of the democratic election, which has transformed the population�s participation in the voting into a big ritual event.
There is a little time till the Parliamentary election in Kazakhstan. Candidates to deputies� sits have started their pre-election campaigns. Each of them assures his electors to vote for him namely and to make �a right� choice. Indeed, candidates have to do many different things for this short period of time (from detailed explanation of their pre-election platform to participation in charitable events).
The time will show how reasonable, sincere and necessary it is. Nevertheless, it will be electors� votes that determine everything.
Results of a sociological poll conducted by �ICSR-Kazakhstan� in the end of August show that most part of the population will take part in the election. We polled 879 respondents, including 480 representatives of the urban population and 399 � of the rural population of six Kazakhstan regions and two cities (Astana and Almaty). Representatively the grown-up population (over 18) of the republic was polled.
More than two-thirds of the polled persons (68.1%) expressed either their actual or potential readiness to take part in the election. Out of these persons, 37.5% will go to the election for sure, and 30.6% - will possibly go. This is quite a significant percentage of electors, whose votes will allow to hold an honest election and to evaluate objectively chances of each candidate.
But the projected situation may change depending on how effectively and spectacularly (or vice versa) candidates will apply to the up-to-date methods of election technologies.
Though the final decision (to go or not to go to the election, to vote or not to vote for a candidate) may depend greatly on a personal situation of a concrete elector, his character, sympathy and antipathy.
A person who recently lost his job may protest passively and not to go to the election district. Or he may just ignore the event. On the whole, this depends on the elector�s attitude to the present course of the reforms.
According to the poll results, a significant part of the respondents (40.1%) supports this course. Hence, these electors evaluate the political situation in the country as quiet (39.2%).
The conducted poll revealed quite a high level of the population�s political culture. It was found out, that 80.5% of electors were informed that the coming election would be held not only in one-mandate districts, but also by parties� lists. 36.4% of these electors treat this as positive peculiarity.
Almost a half of the polled persons have determined their political preferences. To the question �If the election were held tomorrow, for what party would you vote?�, 42.7% of respondents preferred definite parties. More than a half of them preferred two parties: �Otan� (17.2%) and Communist Party (9.4%).
32.7% of the polled persons answers to this question that for the time being they did not know for what party they would vote.
Obviously, parties will fight for these votes namely and these votes will determine the dynamics of parties� ratings.
At the present time �ICSR-Kazakhstan� is conducting a monitor of the election campaign all over the republic. The comparative results of the poll will be presented to readers of THE GLOBE.
ALMATY, 17 Sept
PRESS STATEMENT
Almaty � The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Election Observation Mission has opened its offices in Almaty and in Astana, and has deployed its first teams of Long-Term Observers to several regions for the 10 October 1999 Elections to the Majilis. The first observers to arrive have been seconded from Finland, Germany, Spain, Norway, Canada, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Since opening its Head Office in Almaty, the Election Observation Mission has followed closely the events surrounding the registration of candidates, and particularly the disposition of court cases involving candidates who had to appeal to the courts to have earlier administrative sanctions annulled in order to qualify for registration. The registration of 10 political parties, and the fact that several candidates were successful in winning their cases in the courts raised hopes that the campaign period would begin smoothly.
However, the detention of Mr. Akezhan M. Kazhegeldin, leader of the Republican People�s Party of Kazakhstan, on the day following the announcement that the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal thus making him ineligible to be a candidate, and the arrests of journalists and participants in demonstrations in front of the Russian Embassy in Almaty are of grave concern. While the ODIHR Observation Mission does not intervene or make its assessment based on circumstances related to any single individual, it maintains an interest in principles that affect the entire election environment. Notwithstanding Mr. Kazhegeldin�s subsequent release, recent developments have had an unfortunate chilling affect on the election campaign and will continue to draw the attention of the Mission, the international community, human rights organisations as well as the voters of Kazakhstan. The Mission will continue to observe ongoing events as they unfold and will consider how they have impacted the overall election process and how they should be taken into account in assessing Kazakhstan�s adherence to the international standards established in the Copenhagen Document of 1990.
The Mission welcomes recent decisions taken by the Central Election Commission to allow each of the 10 registered political parties to nominate their delegates who will be their official observers at the Central Election Commission. These observers will have access to all Central Election Commission meetings and will have the opportunity to provide input and observe the decision making process. New regulations safeguarding the rights of party agents, international and domestic observers to be present through all phases of the polling, counting and tabulation process also promote opportunities for greater transparency of the process.
In spite of assurances regarding increased transparency, however, circumstances observed at the Almaty City and Almaty Oblast elections for the Senate by ODIHR observers raise serious concerns as to how the new procedures will be realised in actual practice. Although the Almaty Oblast senate election went smoothly, accredited ODIHR observers were denied access and were only admitted after a 20 minute delay, and a telephone call to the Central Election Commission.
The orderly voting procedures carried out by the Almaty City Election Commission at the senate election were severely marred during the vote counting process when the Chairman refused to allow observers and the media to advance close enough to the table to see the ballot papers as they were counted. The Chairman sorted the ballots by candidate for whom votes were cast, but placed them face down in stacks on the table. A request by a candidate�s agent to be able to see the stacks of ballots to verify that each stack contained only the ballots for a single candidate was also denied. Citing Article 49 of the Constitutional Law on Elections, the Chairman of the Almaty City Election Commission asserted that only the General Prosecutor and Central Election Commission could see the ballot papers. Article 49 relates to the �Terms of Appeal of Decisions and Actions in the Course of the Election Campaign� and does not address the counting of votes or rights of observers at a polling site.
A number of deputies of Almaty City maslikhats who voted in the election also expressed a desire to see the ballots. The counted ballots had been sealed into envelopes and were removed from the room where the counting took place. However, their requests were also denied when an official of the Almaty Oblast executive authority took control of the session.
The failure of the Commission at this site to ensure the level of transparency provided for by the law and dictated by the regulations and procedural guidelines adopted by the Central Election Commission are of grave concern. Transparency is a key element of any election process if it is to earn the public�s trust in the outcome, the confidence of political participants and recognition by the international community for its adherence to accepted international standards.
Moreover, based on contacts with political parties, representatives of the media, candidates and their representatives, election officials and NGO representatives, a number of serious concerns have been raised that will continue to draw the attention of the Mission in the course of its ongoing observations. In particular, there are credible reports from several regions regarding illegal interference by local authorities in the election process. They include assertions that employees have been threatened with job loss for their support for opposition candidates, active campaigning by local government authorities for �favored� candidates, and conduct of party meetings in government offices. These circumstances will warrant close attention by the Central Election Commission and appropriate authorities if they are to ensure that the positive developments in the legal and procedural framework for these elections are not undermined at the local level.
The ODIHR Mission will continue to follow the election process, campaign period and preparations for polling day very closely, in order that it can provide a comprehensive and objective assessment of Kazakhstan�s progress in developing an election system based on internationally accepted democratic principles.
By Dilip Hiro
LONDON
Although impending elections suggest Central Asia�s post-communist governments are committed to democracy, a key element is missing; the polls may be free, but they are not necessarily fair.
Less than a decade ago, Kazakstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were an integral part of a highly centralised Soviet Union, with the Communist Party firmly in charge. Electors simply voted for a list of candidates provided by party bureaucrats, and parliaments were rubber stamps.
The communist system has gone, but the Soviet-era leaders remain. Today�s Central Asian leaders are the same ones who held office when the Soviet Union collapsed. The exception is Tajikistan, whose communist leader, Rahman Nabiyev, died in 1994.
Having risen to the top under the Soviet system, it is hard for them to fully shed their authoritarian ways and accept a credible opposition as an indispensable part of the political process. They pay lip-service to the virtues of multi-party democracy to propitiate the United States, the world�s sole superpower, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to which their countries belong, and the International Monetary Fund, which shores up their fragile economies.
Admittedly the demands made on leadership skills during the communist-era administration were nothing compared to the challenges presented in the post-independence period.
They had to accomplish the unprecedented task of simultaneously switching from centralised to market economies, creating democratic political institutions and forging new national identities, while maintaining social stability against a background of rising ethnic tensions.
The disappearance of an all-encompassing state ideology created a dangerous vacuum. The absence of a history both of democracy and of capitalism made the region susceptible to ethnic nationalism or Islamic rigidity.
These ideologies are destabilizing because they appeal exclusively to particular sections of the population rather than to people as a whole. Yet every Central Asian state is multi-ethnic.
In Kazakstan, for example, ethnic Russians and other Europeans outnumbered ethnic Kazaks and other Central Asians at the time of independence. Ethnic rivalries in the region were suppressed during the Soviet era, but not eliminated. So the collapse of communism opened the door to pent-up tensions, capable of escalating into wide-scale violence or of exploitation by demagogic politicians.
The dangers are real. After the 1991 vote in Tajikistan, in which the opposition won a third of the vote, the country slid into a five-year civil war between communists and an alliance of Muslims and democrats. The death toll was 60,000.
Central Asian leaders argued that the priority was to build the nation and the state, leaving the task of building a multi-party democracy for later. President Saparmurad Niyazov of Turkmenistan was the most ardent advocate of this line. It is no coincidence that while Turkmenistan has been the most stable of the new states, its democratic progress has been minimal.
Progress has also been niggardly in Uzbekistan, where President Islam Karimov has refused to allow opposition groups to function freely.
In Kazakstan, President Sultan Nazarbayev used the intractability of his country�s ethnic and economic problems as a rationale for concentrating power in his hands, clinging to office by fair means and foul.
He passed laws heavily weighted against the opposition, and found a way of extending his tenure without the bother of an election. He held a referendum on private property, the character of statehood, the official language - and the postponement of the presidential poll to 2000. When voters endorsed the multi-point mandate, Nazarbayev was secure for five more years. (President Karimov of Uzbekistan used a similar device to extend his tenure from 1995 to 2000.)
Last January, Nazarbayev�s government provided voters with a multiple choice in the presidential election for the first time. But he disqualified the leading opposition figure, former prime minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin. The OSCE protested in vain.
This time round, the OSCE sent observers to the Senate election on Sept 17 (yesterday) - the first multi-party election to the 49-member chamber. However, OSCE team leader Linda Edgeworth of the United States has warned that �the deployment of the election observation mission does not add legitimacy to the election process, nor does it imply endorsement of the legal framework, administrative practices or the political environment in which the election is being conducted.�
In short, despite the string of elections, there is still a long way to go before the OCSE can declare that democracy has struck roots in the Central Asian republics. -Dawn/Gemini News Service (c) News-Scan International.
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