Mikhail Vinogradov, the director general of the Center for current politics in Russia
When analyzing preliminary results of the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan, it is necessary to separate republican results, exit polls and Alma-Ata statistics. There was too high percentage of the electorate rejection to participate in exit poll. I admit that this fact might affect more active voting for the opposition (versus exit poll data available). If to speak about other Kazakhstan regions, party competition wasn’t so pronounced there. OSDP didn’t manage to assume the second political muscle, as it was in many districts in Alma-Ata.
In case OSDP don’t overpass 7 per cent Kazakhstan authorities will have to make legitimacy of these elections in the opinion of foreign expert more evident than those in 2004. They have all the necessary arguments for this: according to the first comments, voting process itself didn’t roused censure of the international supervisors (especially in Alma-Ata).
Published: “Agency of Political News”, 19th of August 2007
