International observers of the CIS have been impressed by the high voter turnout in the April 26 presidential election in Kazakhstan, a Tengrinews correspondent reports.
International observers of the CIS have been impressed by the high voter turnout in the April 26 presidential election in Kazakhstan, a Tengrinews correspondent reports.
"The situation impresses with its thorough organization. High voter turnout impresses. And, of course, the results are clear (...). We see the reason behind active participation of Kazakhstani voters first of all in the desire to demonstrate their involvement in the life of the country. The result of the vote shows that the people of Kazakhstan wish to preserve and strengthen the country's policies to keep and preserve peace and harmony, to maintain social development aimed at preserving friendship with its neighbors," said chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergei Lebedev, head of the CIS observation mission.
"Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan have been held completely in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There were no serious violations that could affected the course of the election. The elections were democratic and open," Lebedev said.
He said that 15 of 410 election observers in Kazakhstan were part of the long term mission. The observers visited all the regions of Kazakhstan and observed the elections in the cities of Almaty and Astana. In total, the CIS mission visited more than 3,000 polling stations. 6 representatives of central election commissions from various countries came to Kazakhstan: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Uzbekistan and others.
Anatoly Vyborny - international observer, Russian State Duma deputy, chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization on Security and Defense - said that there were cases of absence of voter on voters' lists. But, he said, it was not a violation.
"There were no violations that could affected the voting process. Of course, there was the fact that not everybody was included into the lists, but this is not bad intent. This is due to the fact that there are many new neighborhoods, new residents, big migration, and still not everybody is taken into account during making of the lists. It is not a violation, but we recommend to prevent such defects from happening next time. The good news is that the members of election commissions were very active and tried to solve an arising issues right away. And these defects, they were isolated cases and could be eliminated on the spot," Vyborny expressed his opinion.
“Such a high turnout percentage - 97% - we've only seen in the Crimea (…). You know that just recently there was a referendum, and a similarly high turnout there," the international observer said.
According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), voter turnout in the presidential election in Kazakhstan made 95.22%. The Chairman of the CEC of Kazakhstan said that voter turnout in this election was the highest in the history of independent Kazakhstan.
According to preliminary data of the CEC, the incumbent President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev gained the largest number of votes - 97.7%. 1.6% of voters cast their ballots for Turgun Syzdykova, the candidate from the Communist Party. Self-nominated Abelgazy Kusainov received 0.7% of votes.
Reporting by Aidana Ussupova, writing by Dinara Urazova