Presidential election in Kazakhstan 2011

The presidential election in Kazakhstan took place on April 3, 2011. The election was originally planned for 2012, but was brought forward by a year after the intention of extending the term of office of President Nursultan Nazarbayev through a referendum until 2020. The winner of the election, which according to the OSCE did not meet international standards, was the previous incumbent Nazarbayev, who won 96 percent of all votes.

background

The preference for the Kazakh presidential election from December 2012 to April 3, 2011 was announced on January 31, 2011. It was the third unscheduled election of the Kazakh president since the country's independence, all of which were won by Nursultan Nazarbayev . Previously, there had been the intention to extend Nazarbayev's term of office prematurely. On December 27, 2010, a citizens' initiative submitted a proposal to the Central Electoral Commission to extend Nursultan Nazarbayev's term of office to 2020 without an election. On this initiative, the two chambers of parliament, the Maschilis and the Senate , worked out a constitutional amendment, which was justified by the fact that “there is no alternative to Nazarbayev, elections would therefore be a waste of money”. Nazarbayev himself rejected the change in the law, and the Kazakh Constitutional Council finally declared it unconstitutional.

The planned referendum met with international criticism, not least because Kazakhstan did not hold the OSCE chairmanship until 2010 . The German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, "Such an extension of the term of office by ten years without elections would contradict the principles of democracy and good governance that Kazakhstan propagated to the outside world." The embassy of the United States described the project as a setback for democracy, declaring: "We think it is important that Kazakhstan's government and citizens honor their international commitments and continue to strive for free and fair elections."

After the referendum failed, the preference for the presidential election was announced. The official reason given was that otherwise the parliamentary and presidential elections would coincide in 2012 and that this would have been too great a burden for organizers and voters. The announcement was made shortly after the beginning of the Arab Spring and one could have feared effects and protests in Kazakhstan as well.

Candidates

After the announcement of an early election, the candidates for the presidency only had two months to prepare for the election and to campaign. Well-known opposition politicians such as Bulat Abilow and Vladimir Kaslow canceled their participation and called for a boycott of the election. All other applicants voluntarily withdrew their candidacy or failed the compulsory Kazakh language test, leaving only three opposing candidates: Ghani Qassymov from the Patriot Party , Shambyl Akhmetbekov from the Communist People's Party and the environmental activist Mels Yeleussisow .

Results

Election result:

candidate	Political party	be right	proportion of
Nursultan Nazarbayev	Only Otan	7,850,958	95.55%
Ghani Qassymov	Party of Patriots of Kazakhstan	159.036	1.94%
Shambyl Akhmetbekov	Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan	111,924	1.36%
Mels Jeleussisow	Tagibat	94,452	1.15%
Total (turnout 89.5%)		8,216,370	100.00%

criticism

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had expressed criticism of the election because it did not meet democratic standards. In the run-up to the election, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly was not guaranteed. The counting of votes was not transparent and in some cases additional ballot papers are said to have been put in the polls. Identical signatures were found on some of the electoral rolls. Local authorities intervened in the election process to increase voter turnout; one officer was dismissed for violating the law. In some cases, international election observers have been restricted and hindered in their work.

Web links

• Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan (English, Kazakh and Russian)
• Republic of Kazakhstan. Presidential Election, April 3, 2011. (PDF) OSCE , June 16, 2011, accessed June 16, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: Presidential elections in Kazakhstan (PDF), accessed on April 1, 2015.
2. ↑ BBC News: Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev rejects plan to scrap elections , accessed April 1, 2015.
3. ^ Deutsche Welle: Premature election farce in Kazakhstan? , accessed April 1, 2015.
4. ↑ Open Dialog Foundation: Interfax: Preliminary results of elections in Kazakhstan , accessed on April 1, 2015.
5. ↑ The Economist: Kazakhstan's presidential election - Outdoing himself , accessed April 1, 2015.
6. ↑ Spiegel online: Kazakhstan: OSCE criticizes massive forgeries in presidential elections , accessed on April 1, 2015.
7. ↑ OSCE: Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions (PDF), accessed on April 1, 2015.