Shaken Kazakhstan votes after riots

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Shaken Kazakhstan votes after riots

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Kazakhstan elected a new parliament on Sunday just a month after deadly riots.

15 January,2012 06:25 pm

The resource-rich but authoritarian nations status has been challenged as the beacon of Central Asian growth.The vote is designed to breathe new life into a system under which veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev sacrificed political freedoms in exchange for a record decade of micro-managed economic prosperity.The resulting social tensions exploded in December when 16 people were killed in clashes between striking oil workers and security forces in what became Kazakhstans worst bloodshed since the Soviet Unions fall.The 71-year-old president -- in power since 1989 and still with no clear successor in sight -- said after casting his ballot in the capital Astana that the vote was a big test.I am sure that the Kazakh people will make the right choice for their future, for the countrys development, for calm in our common country, the former metal worker said in comments posted on his website.We have done everything necessary to ensure an open and fair vote, he said.Six parties are challenging Nazarbayevs Nur Otan (Light of the Fatherland) group under new rules in which the second-place finisher will for the first time collect seats even if it wins less than the seven-percent threshold.A study by the Institute for Social-Political Research said Nur Otan should take more than 80 percent of the vote -- only just off the 88 percent it garnered in the last parliamentary ballot in 2007.Its nearest challenger on around seven percent should be the Ak Zhol (Bright Path) party -- a state-crafted business lobby that steers well clear of criticising the president.The opposition All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) -- expected to come in third -- pledged to lead street protests if the authorities rigged the vote. Two of its leaders have been struck from the ballot on technical grounds.If they lie to us this time, steal peoples votes, well take to the streets, OSDP party chairman Zharmakhan Tuyakbai told supporters at an election rally.The opposition and international observers condemned the conduct of April 2011 presidential election that saw Nazarbayev win more than 95 percent of the vote in a poll where even one of his rivals voted for the Kazakh strongman.Turnout on that occasion was reported at a massive 90 percent despite the utter lack of election suspense and a similar figure seemed likely for Sundays ballot.Election authorities quoted an afternoon turnout figure of nearly 70 percent without any reports of serious violations.Yet Nazarbayev appears to enjoy genuine respect among Kazakhs who are taught to refer to their leader as Papa in school and a colourful array of prominent candidates heads his partys election list.They include the presidents eldest daughter Dariga and the cyclist Alexander Vinokurov -- arguably the countrys most famous sportsman.All are designed to give a more humane face to Nazarbayevs strongman rule and regain peoples trust in his vision of Kazakhstans future.I think that we should be raising parliaments status, Dariga Nazarbayeva said in comments reflecting recent efforts to gradually ease the presidents authority before an eventual transition from Nazarbayevs rule.Nazarbayev has already responded to the Zhanaozen unrest by sensationally sacking top energy executives as well as his own son-in-law and one-time possible successor Timur Kulibayev as head of the mammoth state holding firm.He has also ordered elections to be held in the riot-hit Caspian Sea city in response to concerns that voters were being frozen out of the polls as punishment for protesting against the authorities.Police were investigating a mysterious fire in the countrys main mosque in Astana that had been set for a public independence day unveiling on December 16 before the Zhanaozen riot broke out.The Kazakh emergencies ministry said fire fighters had discovered the body of one worker while rescuing 13 other from the blaze.