KZBlog

Category archive for ‘Politics’

• Inauguration and Meeting

  The inauguration of Nazarbayev is tomorrow (or rather, today, since it’s past midnight), and there’s a government meeting scheduled for 11:30am after the ceremony. Presumably the Prime Minister, Ministers and Vice Ministers will officially hand in their resignations, Whether it will be announced immediately today who will be reappointed or not is not clear.

  4/08/11 • (0)

• 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 • (0)

• 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)

• 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 • (0)

• 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 • (0)

• Not a Drop to Drink

  Presidential candidate Mels Yeleusizov is calling for Kazakhs to save water. Especially in the south and west, lack of water is a serious problem, particularly potable and clean water. And for some reason conservation of water (or gas or anything else) doesn’t seem to have permeated the culture. On the other hand, the average citizen [...]

  4/01/11 • (0)

• 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 • (0)

• December 86 a Rebellion?

  Some interesting news from RFE/RL: the movement Zheltoksan AkitatAkikat wants the government to investigate the December 86 protests and classify them as a rebellion. I assume this is a separate group from Zheltoksan 86, but I honestly don’t know what Akitat means in Kazakh (Zheltoksan means December). EDIT: Akikat, the actual name of the movement, [...]

  3/25/11 • (2)

• Rock the Sailau!

  In what I guess is supposed to be something like MTV’s Rock the Vote (Sailau means election in Kazakh; I don’t know the word for vote), some pop stars have come out with a video encouraging people to vote in the upcoming Presidential election. International media is portraying them as some of the “hottest pop [...]

  3/13/11 • (0)

• 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 • (0)

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