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U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Press Statement

Press Statement by James P. Rubin, Spokesman
January 11, 1999

Kazakhstan: January 10 Presidential Election

On January 11, the Central Election Commission's preliminary results indicate that that incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected to a new seven-year term with 81.75 percent of the vote with a reported 86.28 percent voter turnout. The U.S. Government concurs with the OSCE's preliminary statement that the overall electoral process fell far short of OSCE and international standards for open, free and fair elections.

As the Department has noted previously, preparations for the election were seriously flawed. On short notice, the election date was advanced by more than two years, giving candidates little time to organize campaigns. The government used a restrictive electoral law to limit the field of serious candidates based on convictions for political offenses. Candidates received unequal access to the media, and there were numerous instances of voter and opposition intimidation prior to the election. In view of this situation, the OSCE sent only a limited mission to assess and report on the election. The U.S. Government sent no observers.

We are disappointed by the fact that the election process was carried out in a manner inconsistent with Kazakhstan's OSCE commitments, which were reaffirmed to the U.S. Government in our bilateral Joint Commission's Final Report last November. The conduct of this election has set back the process of democratization in Kazakhstan and has made more difficult the development of the important relationship between our countries, as well as Kazakhstan's full participation in Euro-Atlantic institutions.

We remain ready to work with Kazakhstan to support the development of democratic institutions and a civil society in which citizens can fully exercise their human rights and freedoms. These issues have had and will continue to have a prominent place in our bilateral relations with Kazakhstan. We encourage the government of Kazakhstan to take the necessary steps to improve its election legislation and its human rights observance so that local and parliamentary elections scheduled for 1999 will meet Kazakhstan's OSCE and other international commitments.

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