Presidential Election in Kazakhstan (2019)

In the extraordinary elections that took place on April 26, 2015, Nursultan Nazarbayev won with a result of 97.7% of the voters. He was elected for a five-year term ^[4] .

March 19, 2019 Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on resignation of the president from March 20, 2019 at his own request ^{[5] [6]} . In his address to the people, Nazarbayev stated ^[7] :

I decided to terminate my powers as President. This year marks the 30th anniversary of my highest post. The people gave me the opportunity to be the first president of independent Kazakhstan

Since March 20, 2019, the current President of the Republic of Kazakhstan , according to the Constitution , has become the chairman of the Senate Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev ^[8] . According to the Constitution, he was supposed to be the head of the country until the end of the election term of the First President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The next presidential election in Kazakhstan was to be held in April 2020 ^[9] .

On March 20, 2019, the NSDP called for preventing authorization of the political system and developing it by strengthening democratic institutions. She suggested holding fair and democratic presidential and parliamentary elections. ^[10]

On April 9, 2019, in his television message to the people of Kazakhstan, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev announced the holding of early elections, which should be held on June 9, 2019. According to the president, this is necessary to remove any uncertainty ^[11] . Before announcing this decision, consultations were held on April 8 with the participation of the chairman of the Senate of the Parliament Dariga Nazarbayeva , Prime Minister Askar Mamin , the Chairman of the Constitutional Council Kairat Mami , and the Deputy Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament Vladimir Bozhko ^[12] . On April 9, a meeting was also held with the leadership of the political parties “ Nur Otan ”, the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan “ Ak Zhol ”, the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan and the People's Democratic Patriotic Party “ Auyl ” ^[13] .

For the elections, which were originally supposed to be held in 2020, it was planned to spend 8.8 billion tenge. According to Vice Minister of Finance Berik Sholpankulov, the CEC requested 12 billion tenge for early presidential elections, of which about 70% of the funds will be spent on wages to constituency employees. The increase in election costs is associated with an increase in the minimum wage ^[14] .

Each candidate is expected to receive about 7.5 million tenge, which will be directed to guaranteed access for speaking with the election programs in the media. At the same time, expenses may amount to more than the declared amount due to changes in market prices ^[15] .

On April 15, the Government of Kazakhstan announced the allocation of funds from the reserve for elections in the amount of 9.4 billion tenge, which is 2.6 billion less than the amount requested by the CEC ^[16] .

The cost of printing newsletters amounted to more than 132 million tenge. A total of 12 million ballots were printed, which is 1% more than the number of citizens with suffrage ^[17] .

On April 10, 2019, a meeting of the Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan was held , at which the schedule of the main events for the preparation and conduct of early elections of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan was approved, and the forms of election documents were approved ^[18] .

• April 10 - April 28 to 18:00: nomination of candidates;
• until 6:00 p.m. May 11: registration of candidates;
• from the moment of registration of the candidate - until the end of June 7: election campaigning;
• June 8: day of silence ;
• June 9 from 7:00 to 20:00: voting day;
• from June 10 to June 11: preliminary results;
• June 10-16: Establishing election results and registering an elected president.

Of the six registered political parties, five announced congresses. April 23 - “ Nur Otan ”, April 24 - “ Ak Zhol ”, April 25 - “ Auyl ”, April 26 - KNPK ^[19] and the NSDP ^[20] . The party " Birlik " refused to participate in the presidential election due to lack of time to prepare for a full-fledged party congress ^[21] .

On April 17, 2019, the Republican Public Association “Uly Dala Kyrandara” nominated the co-chairman of the association and writer Sadybek Tugel as a presidential candidate ^[22] .

On April 23, 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that the Nur Otan party was nominating incumbent President Tokaev as a candidate for the election. ^[23] Kassym-Zhomart Tokaev appealed to the Constitutional Council for clarification of the calculation of the term of residence of a candidate in Kazakhstan for the time of his work in foreign institutions of the republic and international organizations ^[24] . On April 25, the Constitutional Council decided that the periods of residence of citizens outside of Kazakhstan, which belong to the personnel of the diplomatic service of the Republic of Kazakhstan and equivalent persons sent to international organizations, are counted in the fifteen-year period of residence ^[25] .

On April 24, 2019, the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan nominated Amangeldy Taspikhov, chairman of the territorial union of trade unions of the West Kazakhstan region, as a candidate for presidency ^[26] .

On April 24, the candidacy of Denmark Espaeva was approved at the congress of the party “Ak Zhol”. She became the first woman to be nominated as a presidential candidate in the entire history of Kazakhstan ^[27] .

On April 25, 2019, the Auyl party at its congress nominated Toleutai Rakhimbekova as a candidate for the presidency of Kazakhstan ^[28] .

The NSDP at its congress decided not to nominate a candidate proposed by the party presidium and refused to take part in the elections ^[29] .

On April 26, 2019, at the congress of the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan, Zhambyl Akhmetbekov , who participated in the 2011 presidential election, was again nominated for president ^[30] .

On April 26, the NGO "United National-Patriotic" Movement "Alt taddyry" nominated Amirzhan as a presidential candidate ^[31] .

Talgat Eraliev was one of the possible candidates from the Ak Zhol party and gained 31% of the vote in the party vote, losing to Denmark Espaeva. After that, on April 26, he was nominated as a presidential candidate from the Union of Builders of Kazakhstan ^[32] .

The election campaign started on May 11 and lasted until midnight on June 8, 2019 ^[51] . Campaigning could be carried out in three main ways: through the media; by holding public election events, as well as personal meetings of candidates and their proxies with voters; by issuing and distributing printed, audiovisual and other campaign materials. All the country's media should have been neutral and not campaigned for or against a particular candidate. Until May 5, all publications were supposed to publish information about the amount of payment, the conditions and procedure for providing airtime and print space, as well as provide this data to the CEC for posting on its official website ^[52] .

Election Funds

According to the decision of the CEC of Kazakhstan, the maximum size of the election fund of a candidate for president of Kazakhstan can be no more than 1 billion 147 million tenge. At the same time, the candidate’s own funds and the contribution of the public association that nominated him can be no more than 510 million, and voluntary donations no more than 637.5 million tenge ^[53] . Legislation prohibits making anonymous donations, they will be transferred to the republican budget ^[54] . The expenses of candidates for campaigning in the media cannot exceed 7.3 million tenge ^[55] .

As of May 17, the largest amount was collected on the election account of Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev and amounted to 1.024 billion tenge, and the smallest funds were Sadybek Tugel (76.1 million) and Amirzhan Kosanov (76.6 million). The total expenses of all candidates for campaigning amounted to about 867 million tenge from 1 billion 838 million of collected funds ^[56] .

As of May 29, 2019, the total amount of funds raised amounted to 2.553 billion tenge, and expenses - 1.586 billion. ^[57]

On May 14, 2019, a televised debate was announced between presidential candidates ^[58] . They were scheduled for May 29 and should be broadcast live on the Khabar TV channel ^[59] . The cost of the event amounted to 41 million tenge ^[60] .

Four presidential candidates (Zhambyl Akhmetbekov, Amirzhan Kosanov, Amangeldy Taspikhov and Sadybek Tugel) and three representatives of the candidates (Azat Peruashev represented Denmark Espaeva, Ali Bektaev - Toleutaya Rakhimbekova, Maulen Ashimbaev - Kasym-Zharta ^] participated in the television debate. . The debate went on in three rounds. In the first part, all participants were asked about the development of the education system in Kazakhstan, in the second part about social modernization of Kazakhstan, and in the third part, candidates could ask questions to two other participants in the debate ^[62] .

According to Asel Aben, head of the representative office of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KISI) in the city of Alma-Ata, conducting such debates is an integral part of the political culture in developed countries. On the one hand, this shows the openness and competitiveness of the electoral process. And on the other hand, this once again enables voters to decide on the final choice. She also highlighted the fact that many presidential candidates had discussions in the state language. This suggests that the Kazakh language is already acquiring the status of socio-political significance and is actively used in the political field ^[63] .

According to political analyst Askar Nursh, the lack of favorites reduced the value of the debate, although for the remaining candidates, this was a great opportunity to give the voter a better understanding of themselves and their location. Among the presidential candidates present, there were also those who deserved popular support. The absence of leading competitors even helped them ^[64] .

According to the CEC, the current president of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, won. He received 6 539 715 votes, that is 70.96% of those who participated in the vote ^[65] . The final turnout (those who participated in the elections) amounted to 9,274,110 people (77.5% of the total number of voters included in the lists) ^[65] .

Voter Turnout

In the presidential elections of the Republic of Kazakhstan on June 9, 2019, 77.4% of Kazakhstanis out of the total number of voters included in the lists voted ^[66] . The smallest voter turnout was observed in the largest city of Kazakhstan - Alma-Ata , accounting for only 52.2%, due to the fact that residents for unknown reasons did not receive personal paper invitations to the “Presidential Elections-2019” indicating the voter’s name, address and election number plot. The largest voter turnout was recorded in the Almaty region , amounting to 89.0%.

Экзитполы

По результатам экзит-полла, голоса избирателей распределились следующим образом: Касым-Жомарт Токаев — 70,13 %, Амиржан Косанов — 15,39 %, Дания Еспаева — 5,32 %, Жамбыл Ахметбеков — 3,86 %, Толеутай Рахимбеков — 3,03 %, Амангелды Таспихов — 1,41 %, Садыбек Тугел — 0,86 % ^[67]

12 июня 2019 года во Дворце Независимости состоялась церемония инаугурации (вступления в должность Президента) Токаева ^[68] . Председатель ЦИК РК Берик Имашев вручил Касым-Жомарту Токаеву удостоверение избранного президента ^[69] .

Preparing for the election

В рамках сбора подписей кандидатами наблюдались нарушения. Так, в одном из высших учебных заведений было предложено подписывать листы, на которых не были указаны данные кандидата ^[70] .

Согласно законодательству Казахстана запрещено проводить опросы не удовлетворяющие требованиям. К таким нарушениям относится проведение опросов в социальных сетях, за что были оштрафованы двое граждан ^[71] .

Приглашения на выборы

За несколько дней до выборов все жители Республики Казахстан согласно правилам должны были получить от городских и областных избирательных комиссий персональное бумажное приглашение на «Президентские выборы-2019» с указанием ФИО избирателя, адресом и номером избирательного участка. Однако по неизвестным причинам многие жители крупнейшего города республики Алматы не получили своих приглашений на выборы впервые за всю историю проведения выборов в стране. Председателем избирательной комиссии по городу Алматы является заместитель председателя правления АО «Центр развития Алматы» Жанна Асанова.

Во время выборов

Генеральной прокуратурой во время проведения выборов установлено 19 выявленных нарушений, заведены дела об административном правонарушении. Из них 12 нарушений связано с выдачей членом участковой избирательной комиссии бюллетеней гражданам для осуществления голосований за других лиц, 6 нарушений были связаны, что отдельные избиратели хотели проголосовать вместо другого избирателя ^{[72] [73]} .

As of May 6, 2019, several election observation missions have expressed interest. Among them are the CIS , the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS member states , the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE / ODIHR), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation ^[74] .

On May 15, training was conducted on the basis of the civilian platform “Amanat” for observers from the NGOs of Almaty and 12 ethnocultural centers of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, students of city universities. In total, it is planned to train at least 10 thousand independent observers under this program ^[75] .

As of May 31, the number of observers from international organizations and foreign countries is 967 ^[76] , and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accredited 227 foreign correspondents from more than 40 countries of the world ^[77] .

During the presidential election, 19 violations were identified ^[78] .

OSCE

On May 8, 2019, the OSCE / ODIHR Election Observation Mission was opened. The observer team, according to the head of the mission, Ursula Gatsek, has experts from the UK, Spain, Germany, Belarus, Poland, who will work not only before the election, but also after ^[79] . In total, 22 long-term observers were registered as part of the mission ^[80] .

According to an interim mission report of May 24, the election campaign is subtle and limited to campaign posters and billboards. The conduct of the election campaign is strictly regulated, and candidates can hold public meetings or events only with the permission of local authorities, an application for which must be submitted 10 days before the planned event ^[81] .

CIS

On May 20, the mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States was opened. According to CIS Executive Secretary Viktor Guminsky, it is estimated that about 300 observers will be part of the CIS mission. They will represent all countries of the community. To date, about 90 representatives of the countries of the Commonwealth have already applied for accreditation. These statements keep coming. So far, official applications have been received from four countries: Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, as well as from the IPA CIS. Long-term observers will work - about 20 people from the diplomatic corps accredited in Nur-Sultan, as well as the CIS executive committee ^[82] .

On election day, June 9 and 10, unauthorized protests were held in the cities of Nur-Sultan and Alma-Ata . The protests in Alma-Ata took place on Astana Square and on the adjacent Abylay Khan Avenue and Panfilova Street, which, together with the area in 2017-2018, were transformed into public spaces on the recommendation of the Soros Kazakhstan Foundation to realize freedom of expression and collective decision local issues . In Nur-Sultan, the rallies took place on Republic Avenue at the Zhastar Palace. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reported that in Nur-Sultan, protesters used stone throws, objects falling under the arm and pepper spray was used, which caused three policemen to be injured. According to official reports, units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the police and the National Guard took measures to ensure public safety and the rule of law, the squares and streets were cleared of protesters by dispersal and detention ^{[83] [84] [85]} . According to the statement of the first deputy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Marat Kozhaev, on June 9, about 500 people were detained during the protests ^{[86] [87]} . Among those detained in the riots there are local journalists. On June 18, there were reports of the detention of about 4 thousand people in all cities of Kazakhstan. The operator of the online publication Vlast.kz, Ekaterina Suvorova , the journalist of Azattyk Petr Trotsenko, and the political scientist Dimash Alzhanov, working at the NGO Legal Policy Research Center, were detained ^[88] . The British journalist Chris Rickleton, who works at the France Press Agency, said on Twitter that he was also detained. Chris Rickleton and his colleague spent two hours in the local police department until Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vasilenko intervened. He called the reporters and apologized, after which they were released ^[86] . On June 10, akyn Rinat Zaitov was detained in an unauthorized rally, where his performance was shot by channel 31 , which recorded his detention on video as well ^{[89] [90]} . Soon after the legal explanatory conversation, Zaitov was released home. However, in the late evening, citizens gathered in front of the police department in search of Zaitov and demanded his release. After informing them that Zaitov was at home, they did not want to disperse. At the request of law enforcement agencies, Zaitov was taken from his home to a gathering place for citizens, where he spoke out, urging law enforcement officers not to break the law, and asked them to go home and not give in to provocations ^{[91] [92] [93]} . On the second day of protests, according to the statement of the adviser of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurdilda Oraz, about 200 people were detained, 150 of them were brought to justice ^[94] . In total, 957 people were detained in two days in the cities of Almaty and Nur-Sultan ^{[95] [96]} . President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokaev called on the protesters for dialogue ^[97] .

Official Position

According to official authorities, the protests were caused by attempts to destabilize the public environment by radical elements by organizing and conducting unauthorized actions ^[83] . The authorities consider the protests agitated by foreign "leaders of extremist organizations", referring mainly to the former Kazakhstani politician and opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov and his movement "Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan" , recognized in the republic as an extremist organization. Ablyazov was the first to come up with the idea of ​​boycotting the elections and holding a protest rally. In 2009, the Kazakh authorities charged Ablyazov with abuses and fraud and removed him from the post of head of BTA Bank , which is why Ablyazov soon fled abroad and was convicted in absentia in Kazakhstan ^{[98] [99] [100]} .

Protesters Position

Protesters consider the elections to be unjust and undemocratic, and their results are predetermined and call for a boycott of the early election of the president ^[86] . They also protested against changing the name of the capital and the current government, which, in their opinion, is still in the hands of ex-president Nazarbayev , and Kasym-Zhomart Tokaev is only his “political puppet”. Ablyazov’s supporters believe that Nazarbayev’s government made false accusations of fraud for the purpose of his arrest, the true reasons of which are his opposition views, various speeches and statements, which are inconvenient for the current government, because of which he is forced to hide abroad, and his movement is “Democratic choice of Kazakhstan ”was declared extremist on the territory of the Republic ^{[101] [102] [103]} .

International Observers

Observers from the CIS noted that they did not observe a violation of the procedure for holding elections, that the elections were calm, organized and free. CIS observers generally praised the election. The opposite side was taken by international observers from the OSCE , in their opinion the elections did not demonstrate their democratic authenticity and that Kazakhstan still needs significant political, social and legal reforms to strengthen democracy, human rights and freedoms, they stated that they are always ready to cooperate with Kazakhstan for carrying out such actions ^[104] . Also, observers from the CIS stated that they did not observe any protests and detentions, and OSCE people, on the contrary, observed the protests and considered the actions of the Kazakh authorities to obvious violations of the foundations of freedom and democracy and disrespect for their own people. OSCE observers decided to stay in Kazakhstan for 1 week due to concerns about the fate of the protesters ^[105] .