Strasbourg, 17/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 January, the EU high representative for foreign affairs regretted that the presidential elections on 15 January in Kazakhstan had not been “genuinely pluralistic” and did not meet key democratic principles. Catherine Ashton encouraged the Kazakhstani authorities to effectively address the shortcomings observed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and to consider them as priorities, “in line with their commitments regarding democratic principles and human rights”.
Ashton, however, congratulated the Kazakhs “for the way in which they exercised their democratic rights in the legislative elections” and said that this “is a positive step towards the development of a pluralistic and democratic political culture in Kazakhstan”.
The EU high representative pointed out that Kazakhstan is a “key partner for the EU”, and the EU stands ready “to continue our support to the implementation of further political reforms”.
The Nur Otan party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev won the elections with 80.99% of the votes, which enabled the party to obtain 83 of the 107 seats in the lower chamber of parliament. Two other parties attained the 7% threshold needed to enter parliament: the opposition party, Ak-Zhol, with 7.47% of votes (eight seats) and the pro-regime communists with 7.19% (seven seats). The remaining nine seats went to the People's Assembly of Kazakhstan, the advisory body chaired by President Nazarbayev, representing the different ethnicities in the country. (CG/transl.fl)