KZBlog

My first encounter with the election came when a knock came at my door on a Sunday morning. I growled, “Who’s there?” in my meanest voice as one does. A timid voice replied, “The school, about the elections.” This made sufficently little sense as to tempt to me open the door. Two middle-school girls were standing on my door with the voter-registration form. They asked me to fill it out and when I explained that I wasn’t a citizen, they pressed that I should really fill it out. I pointed out that that might be against the law, and they got scared and left. I was overall impressed that school kids were out on a Saturday doing their duty and that they were persistent. On the other hand, they have classes on Saturday so they might have been just happy to miss algebra.

A week or so later, a teacher came to my door to check on whether I had filled out my form or not. I was impressed by the follow-up. I repeated that I wasn’t a citizen and she asked if I might fill it out anyway. I said I didn’t want to appear to be trying to illegally register and she said that was a good point and that she would check and call if I did need to fill it out. She asked about the owner of the apartment and I gave her the address. Again, all very professional and thorough. Cynics have pointed to the fact that the public schools are run by the Ministry, under the President and that there is a great deal of pressure to register voters because there is a belief that Nazarbayev is popular and one of the few things that could spoil his victory would be if his support base was over-confident and the general populace apathetic. Sort of like the sitcoms where the cool guy runs for class president but only the dorks vote. Wah Wah Waaaaaahhhhhh!

We got a nice little announcement the other day letting us know that the school would be our polling station. The kids (I assume) who always rummage through the mail and throw it on the floor had done that with this

Does anyone know why people go through everyone’s mailboxes and throw it all on the floor? I don’t get it since it’s all free newspapers and ads for elite housing

Yesterday I was very pleased to get my guide to the elections in Kazakh and Russian with a nice picture of Ak Orda, the new White House, and the ubiqutious Bayterek. It starts by reminding us when and where to vote, and tells us who the chairman of our local election commitee is, and what telephone we can reach her. It quotes the law on elections and lists the rights of voters, which include the right to take part in the election (I love the bureacracy here or is it the last traces of Soviet Russian?), the right to all the information in this booklet, and the right to take part in election-related “agitastiya” ie rallies or propoganda (point 1, article 28 of the Election Law)–although (because) demonstrations are now forbidden between the end of the vote and the announcement of the results and we know why that is, I thought it was nice of them to put that in. Also, cited is the right to place a legal complain in court regarding the election or campaigns.

This information is followed by what to do if your name is not on the list, what qualifications a voter must have–over 18 and legal citizen or permanent resident–and then instructions on how to use the paper and electronic voting systems. The only confusion I noted was that while it was announced earlier that voters would be able to choose how they wanted to vote, here it seems to say that voting stations will have one or the other. But both systems look a heck of a lot easier than what they were doing last year during the Parlimentary elections. I snuck a peak at the paper ballots at one of the polling stations and though I was afraid to get too close and be accused of interfering, it looked really confusing. People were sitting in the polling station (also the sports complex) staring at this long long page of text. The new one, you just check the box next to the name of the candidate and you’re done. I also saw instructions on the computer system on the news last year, and then I looked at the babushki going into the polling station. It didn’t look good for the babushki. The new system is pretty simple though you need a card and it wasn’t clear where you got the card. At the end of voting also you get a verification code which you should write down and keep but it wasn’t clear why–maybe in case of a recount or accusations of fraud. A nice touch that the candidate names on the pictures demonstrating how to vote are one Russian name, one Kazakh name, and one German name.

Our little booklet ends with an appeal to youngsters, reminding them that 18 is the voting age, that the future lies in their hand and voters are people who care about their country and aren’t indifferent to their country. It’s a little cheesy but I wouldn’t have minded such a booklet during my second election in the US–I didn’t realize I had to register for every election and so I missed out on my first Presidential election.

I wanted to tag in here the list I saw of complaints made against the campaigns of the candidates but I can’t find the link. It was wonderfully revealing one way or another. Something like 500 against Baimenov, 700 against Abylkasymov, 3000 against Tuyakbai and 8 against Nazarbayev.

One of the big discussions going on in the seriously opposition-biased site: Information and Analytical Center Eurasia is a complaint against Tuyakbai’s campaign about mentioning Kazakhgate and campaigning before the campaign time began. This has been answered by saying that the President can ‘campaign’ anytime he wants since he gets media coverage all the time and that mentioning a factual court case cannot possibly be damaging.

On the other hand, I have heard complaints both in the news and from collegues about Tuyakbai’s campaign signing people up on petitions under false pretenses. Apparently they tried to sign up Nazarbayev’s local campaign headquarters by claiming it was a pro-Nazarbayev petition and a friend was asked to sign a petition against the housing committe in their dom, and was later told that it was an opposition petition. Other than that Tuyakbai’s campaign has been accused of spreading materials without listing who produced and who paid for them , as stipulated in the law–though I must say these posters of Nazarbayev all over Astana, and the ads on Temir Zholi train company ticket envelopes also lack that information.

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Finally, on the death of Nurkadilov, the BBC reminds us all that he was convicted of slander for saying the President had killed an opposition journalist earlier this year. It is a crime to slander in Kazakhstan and also a crime to dishonor or indignify the President.