OSCE election experts to arrive

The Organization for Security and Cooperation's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has announced a three-day needs assessment mission to Kazakhstan. "This is a mission for December's upcoming presidential elections," Urdur Gunnarsdottir, the ODIHR's spokeswoman said from the Polish capital Warsaw on Monday. Set to arrive on Wednesday, the three-man team will meet with government officials, members of the political opposition, NGOs, media groups and election authorities to discuss Kazakhstan's upcoming polls. "There is no particular significance to this," Gunnarsdottir emphasised, describing the assessment mission as standard procedure for a country about to go to the polls. "If it is indicated that there might be a reason to observe, we send a needs assessment mission, which in turn makes recommendations as to whether to observe or not," she explained. Based in Warsaw, the ODIHR is active throughout the OSCE area in the fields of election observation, democratic development, human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination, and rule of law. While Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the oil-rich ex-Soviet state for 16 years, intends to run for a new seven-year term, the 65-year-old leader has drawn heavy criticism for blocking democratic reforms and persecuting political opponents and free media. International observers described the country's parliamentary elections one year earlier as flawed, with no opposition group represented in legislature. It remains to be seen how this election will proceed. On Saturday Kazakh opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbay announced his plans to run for the presidency for his "For a Just Kazakhstan" party. "On Monday morning, Tuyakbay will submit documents to the Central Election Committee to register his presidential candidacy," the party's headquarters said. Previously, Tuyakbay had been Chief Prosecutor of Kazakhstan and Speaker of the Majilis (Kazakhstan's lower house of parliament). Ualikhan Kaysarov, senator of the Karagandin region, has already announced his candidacy against the current president. Earlier this month, Nazarbayev pledged to ensure that December's polls would be democratic. "As the country's incumbent president, I will create all the conditions to make the forthcoming presidential elections free, fair and transparent," Nazarbayev told the first session of parliament following the summer recess, according to the AP. Nazarbayev said the results of the elections "must not cause any doubt," either among Kazakh voters or the international community, the news agency quoted him as saying. But doubt is something very much on the minds of local and international activists alike. According to Freedom House in its annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world, Central Asia's largest state is classified as 'not free'.