800 observers to monitor presidential elections

800 observers representing the CIS and OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights are expected to monitor the forthcoming presidential elections in Kazakhstan that will take place April 3, 2011, Novosti-Kazakhstan News Agency reports. The ODIHR mission is supposed to comprise 436 people, with 36 of them being long-term observers. The CIS countries are to send nearly the same number of observers. For the 2005 presidential elections the Central Election Commission (CEC) accredited a total of 1634 international observers and media representatives. The Kazakhstan’s Government has allocated KZT 4.7 tenge (USD 32.1 million) to finance the early presidential election campaigns of contestants for the presidency. CEC has already closed submission of applications from those willing to run for Office of the President. According to Mr. Bakhyt Meldeshov, CEC Secretary, the CEC accepted 22 applications as of February 21, 2011. Four of them were submitted by NGOs and political parties, with the other 18 submitted by independent nominees.