Ambrosio Spinola
12-05-2005, 09:15 AM
What would have Landser to say about this? :D
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-05T072603Z_01_ARM413201_RTRUKOC_0_UK-KAZAKHSTAN.xml&archived=False
ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev won re-election by a landslide on Monday, official preliminary results showed, but the opposition in the former Soviet republic alleged vote-rigging.
The result means Nazarbayev will rule for another seven years in the vast Central Asian state, a reassuring signal to big oil investors in the United States, China and Russia who have negotiated billions of dollars of contracts with him.
Despite the fraud claims, Nazarbayev, who has held power since 1989, said the vote was clean and made clear he believed he had put a stop to the "people's revolutions" that have deposed veteran leaders in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
"We're talking not about revolutions but evolutions," he told reporters. "Kazakhstan voted for calmness and stability."
He also dismissed any suggestion that the Soviet-style margin of victory -- 91 percent against less than 7 percent for the main opposition challenger -- was in any way suspect in a country that has never held a vote judged free and fair.
"Percentage points and democracy have nothing in common," he said after crowds of supporters celebrated his victory in a stadium in the windswept new capital Astana that he has built.
But, in the biggest city Almaty, the opposition cried foul.
"The results are just absurd," Oraz Zhandosov, a manager for opposition challenger Zharmakhan Tuyakbai's For a Just Kazakhstan campaign team, told Reuters.
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers were due to give their assessment of the poll in the world's ninth largest country at 10:00 a.m. British time.
OIL AND DEMOCRACY
Nazarbayev came to power as the Communist Party head of Kazakhstan, then won presidential elections in 1991 with 98.8 percent of the vote, and in 1999 with 79.8 percent.
Despite his patchy democratic record and an authoritarian streak, he has maintained warm relations with the West, former imperial master Russia and China, a rising power in the region.
The country is forecast to become one of the world's top 10 oil producers in the next decade as it develops new offshore oil fields in the Caspian Sea.
The opposition has accused the West of putting Kazakhstan's oil before democracy. Visiting Western leaders usually come to praise Nazarbayev for economic reforms and political stability -- his own favourite themes -- rather than criticise his record.
Tuyakbai's campaign team said on Sunday it had evidence of electoral fraud. The losing candidate was due to hold a news conference later on Monday.
The opposition says it will not break the law by organising demonstrations against the alleged vote-rigging like those that swept through Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Such protests were banned outright during the elections and require official permission at other times.
Under Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan has reversed economic decline after the collapse of the Soviet Union and reformed its economy.
But it has also been plagued by corruption scandals, opposition parties have been closed down, and several politicians and an anti-corruption reporter have been jailed.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-05T072603Z_01_ARM413201_RTRUKOC_0_UK-KAZAKHSTAN.xml&archived=False
ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev won re-election by a landslide on Monday, official preliminary results showed, but the opposition in the former Soviet republic alleged vote-rigging.
The result means Nazarbayev will rule for another seven years in the vast Central Asian state, a reassuring signal to big oil investors in the United States, China and Russia who have negotiated billions of dollars of contracts with him.
Despite the fraud claims, Nazarbayev, who has held power since 1989, said the vote was clean and made clear he believed he had put a stop to the "people's revolutions" that have deposed veteran leaders in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
"We're talking not about revolutions but evolutions," he told reporters. "Kazakhstan voted for calmness and stability."
He also dismissed any suggestion that the Soviet-style margin of victory -- 91 percent against less than 7 percent for the main opposition challenger -- was in any way suspect in a country that has never held a vote judged free and fair.
"Percentage points and democracy have nothing in common," he said after crowds of supporters celebrated his victory in a stadium in the windswept new capital Astana that he has built.
But, in the biggest city Almaty, the opposition cried foul.
"The results are just absurd," Oraz Zhandosov, a manager for opposition challenger Zharmakhan Tuyakbai's For a Just Kazakhstan campaign team, told Reuters.
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers were due to give their assessment of the poll in the world's ninth largest country at 10:00 a.m. British time.
OIL AND DEMOCRACY
Nazarbayev came to power as the Communist Party head of Kazakhstan, then won presidential elections in 1991 with 98.8 percent of the vote, and in 1999 with 79.8 percent.
Despite his patchy democratic record and an authoritarian streak, he has maintained warm relations with the West, former imperial master Russia and China, a rising power in the region.
The country is forecast to become one of the world's top 10 oil producers in the next decade as it develops new offshore oil fields in the Caspian Sea.
The opposition has accused the West of putting Kazakhstan's oil before democracy. Visiting Western leaders usually come to praise Nazarbayev for economic reforms and political stability -- his own favourite themes -- rather than criticise his record.
Tuyakbai's campaign team said on Sunday it had evidence of electoral fraud. The losing candidate was due to hold a news conference later on Monday.
The opposition says it will not break the law by organising demonstrations against the alleged vote-rigging like those that swept through Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Such protests were banned outright during the elections and require official permission at other times.
Under Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan has reversed economic decline after the collapse of the Soviet Union and reformed its economy.
But it has also been plagued by corruption scandals, opposition parties have been closed down, and several politicians and an anti-corruption reporter have been jailed.