First reading of new electoral law welcomed by OSCE

A new electoral law passed its first reading in the Kazakh parliament on Monday aiming at creating a legal framework for the next democratic election in the energy rich ex-Soviet Central Asian republic. Both parliamentary chambers voted in favour of reforming an electoral system - widely criticised by Kazakh opposition parties and international organisations, including the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), - that has led to widespread electoral fraud. A preliminary assessment made by the OSCE, based on the draft of the amended Election Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, recognised that the text included significant improvements in the areas of transparency, formation of more pluralistic election commissions and the creation of more equal conditions for campaigning, compared to earlier versions of the document. However, the OSCE said in a statement that the draft law did require further improvements to meet the standards and guidelines for democratic elections “especially with regard to limitations on certain civil and political rights”. “It is too early to tell if the law fulfills OSCE requirements, and we have to wait till the final version is approved by the parliament”, Beata Martin-Rozumilowicz, a media and political affairs officer at the OSCE office in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, told IRIN. Observers and opposition parties have expressed concern with the reforms proposed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's government, and have called for the reforms to go further in order to guarantee transparency and clarity during the next election, local media reported. But it is believed that the eventual form of the electoral law will depend on any amendments added during a second reading in the Kazakh Parliament, the results of which is yet to be seen.