KZBlog

Tag archive for ‘elections’

• Preliminary Results Are In

  It’s Nazarbayev with 95.5% of the vote Gani Kasymov 1.9% Zhambyl Akhmetbekov 1.4% Mels Yeleusizova 1.2% If you remember, exit polls had Nazarbayev with 95% and the others with 2.1%, 1.57%, and 1.44%, which has to be one of the most accurate exit polls ever. Official results will apparently be ready on the 9th of […]

  4/04/11 • (Comments Off on Preliminary Results Are In)

• Voter Turnout by Region

  The Central Election Committee already has voter turnout by region up on their site. No big surprises. Total turnout is reported as 89.9%. The lowest turnout was in Almaty at 68.5% but surprisingly Astana, the capital, had the next lowest, with 69.1%. Every oblast except Pavlodar reported over 90%. And reports are already out that […]

  4/04/11 • (4)

• Boycott the Vote Campaign Expands

  In my earlier election wrap up post, I failed to mention any press covering the opposition’s campaign to get voters to boycott the vote. If there really was an 84% voter turnout, then the campaign clearly failed. However the message did reach one unexpected constituency: puppies.

  4/03/11 • (Comments Off on Boycott the Vote Campaign Expands)

• Elections Media Round Up

  The polls are closing in Kazakhstan’s snap Presidential election. According to Usen Zhetenov of the Central Election Committee voter turnout was around 84% [RU], compared to 74% in 2005 when Nazarbayev won with 91% of the votes. According to Kairat Sazhanov, the Central Election Committee representative in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, turnout abroad was […]

  4/03/11 • (Comments Off on Elections Media Round Up)

• Polls Are Open

  As the polls open for the snap Presidential election, Reuters has an interesting article surveying opinions in Aksu Ayuly, a village of 2000. Nice to hear what is being said outside of Almaty and Astana where journalists, local and international alike, often don’t bother to tread. Meanwhile, the Central Election Committee promises to have preliminary […]

  4/02/11 • (Comments Off on Polls Are Open)

• 0.32 Percent

  A lot of press in Kazakhstan has been talking about Mels Yeleusizov, the presidential candidate for the Green Party, as if no one had ever heard of him. But in going over my archives, I discovered that Mr. Yeleusizov won 0.32% of the vote in 2005. So he’s not a complete unknown. And according to […]

  4/02/11 • (1)

• Gani Kasymov 10 Years Ago

  Much as I don’t want to disparage people from voting for any candidate on Sunday, this interview with Gani Kasymov of the Patriot’s Party from 1999, when he was also running for President on KTK is pretty amusing. While Eurasianet hits a lot of the highlights, they missed the moment at 2:28 when the journalist […]

  4/01/11 • (Comments Off on Gani Kasymov 10 Years Ago)

• Media and Elections

  On the subject of elections, Neweurasia has a post up on MediaLawCA.org, a database on Central Asian laws regarding media. I have no way of knowing how accurate or unbiased that site is, but it’s worth checking out their synopsis of media law and elections in Kazakhstan [RU]. Especially if you are a journalist or […]

  3/11/11 • (Comments Off on Media and Elections)

• What Are They Testing?

  Interesting article about the required Kazakh language exam for candidates to the Presidency from RFE/RL: Kazakh Language Exams Test Grammar, Loyalty. I thought this bit was particularly problematic: The examiners say the test is strictly about language, not politics. But even the first person to pass this year’s test — Musaghali Duambekov, who frequently expresses […]

  2/22/11 • (6)

• Elections on 3 April

  The President has issued a decree setting elections for 3 April 2010, 2 months from now. Elections would have been held in December of 2012, but in a speech on 31 Jan rejecting the referendum, Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed early elections in what is being called a “compromise” between those who feel the referendum to extned […]

  2/04/11 • (1)

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