New election monitoring initiative launched

In the run-up to the presidential election expected in December, a group of local human rights defenders, journalists and sociologists have banded together to form what could be the first genuinely independent election monitoring group in Kazakhstan. "We belong to neither the opposition nor the government," Eugeniy Zhovtis, director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law and member of the newly founded Initiative for Fair Election, said from the commercial Kazakh capital of Almaty. Once their findings are published, they would leave it to the Kazakh public to judge the final results, Zhovtis explained, adding: "We don't want to give anyone the possibility to manipulate the results." These elections were crucial for the next seven years of Central Asia's largest state, he said, asserting: "We should be sure and confident of the results and that the elected president is legitimate." Launched on Tuesday, the Initiative for Fair Election could be a step in the right direction in the vast steppe nation of 15 million. The polls will be the first time that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will face real competition since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. "During this competition there would be an exchange of views and debate, allowing us to see what society is actually looking for and thinking," Zhovtis maintained. But these are lofty ambitions given circumstances on the ground. According to Freedom House, a US-based pro-democracy NGO, following an intensified crackdown in 2002 against critics of his government, Nazarbayev continued efforts to silence political opponents and independent journalists throughout 2003 in this sparsely populated, multi-ethnic land, while in June, legal measures carried out by Astana threatened the work of civil society and further undermined an already weakened political opposition. Despite that, Zhovtis believes his country is at a crossroads. "The country is on the verge of political modernisation," he claimed, noting the country's economic transition and the creation of a market economy. "But what about the political situation?" he asked, asserting that the country was still very much under the influence of old Soviet ways. Asked why international donors should help them, he explained that those who received funding from either the opposition or the government could never be truly independent. "Foreign funding will give us the opportunity to be as independent as possible," he said, adding their only pre-condition for funding was objectivity. Such sentiment was echoed by his colleague and fellow initiative member Sergey Duvanov. "Politics is out of consideration," the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency quoted the prominent journalist as saying. "Our task is not politics or the (election) process; it is to follow the process." Part of that process will be to look at the greater picture, however. "There will be no politics in our efforts. We are not involved in any political struggle. As civil society, we need to monitor the process and determine whether the elections are free and fair, and what Kazakh society at the beginning of the 21st century is looking for and whether these hopes will be met by the current politicians," Zhovtis explained.