Freedom in the World
Report on situation in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan
Polity: Presidential (dominant party)
Political Rights: 6
Civil Liberties: 5
Status: Not Free
Economy: Mixed statist (transitional)
Population: 15,400,000
PPP: $3,560
Life Expectancy: 65
Ethnic Groups: Kazakh (51 percent), Russian (30 percent), Ukrainian (3 percent), Uzbek (2 percent), Tatar (1 percent), other
Capital: Astana

Kazakhstan began 1999 by holding presidential elections strongly criticized from inside and outside the country as being unfair. The January presidential election, held almost two years before it was scheduled, was the first in Kazakhstan’s history in which voters had a choice of candidates. However, the key challenger, former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, was barred form running on a legal technicality. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitored the elections, refused to recognize the results and said they fell “far short” of being democratic.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev received about 80 percent of the votes, the other three candidates dividing the rest. The challengers complained about being harassed by local authorities, hot having equal access to the media, and having to undergo a burdensome registration procedure. Nazarbayev already enjoys sweeping executive powers and rules virtually unchallenged while the parliament has a reputation of bowing under presidential pressure. Keen to win the approval of Western monitors, Nazarbayev introduced some electoral reforms preceding the fall parliamentary elections. These reforms included increasing the number of seats in the lower chamber by 10, to 77, abolishing a rule requiring a 50 percent turnout for the elections to be valid, and reducing the registration fee for parliamentary candidates. The electoral law has also been relaxed to allow candidates with administrative charges against them to participate in the elections nevertheless.

The parliamentary elections held in September and October 1999 under the new laws were the first multiparty elections in Kazakhstan’s history and marked “a tentative step in the country’s transition to democracy,” according to the OSCE. In September, 33 candidates competed for the 16 seats coming vacant in the 39-seat senate; in October, more than 500 candidates from ten parties vied for the 77 seats of the parliament’s lower house, the Majlis. Despite improvements since the controversial presidential ballot in January, 1999 the parliamentary elections remained deeply flawed. The OSCE’s monitors criticized the obstruction and intimidation of opposition candidates as well as the lack of independent elections commissions. As expected, Otan, the newly formed party loyal to Nazarbayev, won more seats in the Majlis than any other party.

This sparsely populated, multi-ethnic land, which is the size of India and stretches from the Caspian Sea east to the Chinese border, was controlled by Russia from 1730 to 1917. After a brief period of independence in 1917, it became an autonomous Soviet republic in 1929 and a union republic in 1936.

Kazakhstan formally declared independence from a crumbling Soviet Union in December 1991. Nazarbayev, former first secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party, was elected president in 1991. In March 1995, Nazarbayev dissolved parliament and ruled by decree. Nazarbayev ordered a referendum extending the term of the presidency from five to seven years. Four months later, voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, which gave the president the right to dissolve parliament if it approves a no-confidence vote in the government or twice rejects his nominee for prime minister. The constitution also codified periods of presidential rule by decree.

In 1999, Kazakhstan’s economy was hit hard by the declining values in 1998 of oil and metals, its key exports; the crisis in neighboring Russia; and the downturn in the emerging global markets. In April, 1999 the national currency (the tenge) lost nearly half its value against the dollar when it was allowed to float against the dollar in response to the influx of cheap imports from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyz Republic, whose currencies had been devalued earlier. The crisis complicated the adoption of a budget for the year 2000 and became a factor in the dismissal of Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev in October.

In 1999, the U.S.-Kazakhstan relations were temporarily complicated by an arms scandal which broke out in August, when a deal to supply 40 Kazakh MIG-21 jet fighters to North Korea was discovered.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Although the constitution provides for democratic elections, in practice the government infringes on the right of citizens to change their government. The constitution concentrates power in the presidency, granting the president considerable control over the legislature, the judiciary, and local governments. The constitution cannot be modified or amended without the consent of the president. All mayors and provincial governors are appointed by the president.

Under the 1995 constitution, parliament’s powers are more limited than before. The senate consists of two representatives from each of Kazakhstan’s 14 provinces and two cities, Astana and Almaty. An additional seven senators are appointed by the president. The senators serve a six-year term, with a number of seats coming up for re-election every two years. The lower house of parliament has 77 members elected for five years. Ten of the 77 seats of the Majlis are distributed according to proportional party representation, while the remaining 67 are contested by individual candidates.

The constitution provides for freedom of the press, but the government has closed or otherwise harassed many of the independent media. The potential for government control and harassment results in widespread self-censorship among the media. The key subjects considered off limits by journalists are the president and his family. The press is generally permitted to criticize government decisions, official corruption, and the ineffectiveness of the parliament. Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga controls one of the two national television networks. A government decree mandates that half of all material broadcast be in the Kazakh language. The decree has been enforced only sporadically and the Russian-language media continue to dominate in Kazakhstan.

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed. However, the government sometimes harasses Islamic and Christian groups whose members it regards as religious extremists. Religious organizations must register with the ministry of justice to receive legal status. Without registration, religious organizations cannot buy or rent real property, hire employees, obtain visas for foreign missionaries, or engage in any other legal transactions.

Religious organizations that encountered difficulties during registration include Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Korean Protestant groups, as well as Muslim and Orthodox groups independent of the mufti or Russian Orthodox archbishop. Ethnic Kazakhs historically are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. Although most Kazakhs identify themselves as Muslims, government and independent experts believe that a large number of Kazakhs are nonobservant.

The government continued to discriminate in favor of ethnic Kazakhs in government employment, where Kazakhs predominate, as well as in education, housing, and other areas. The first Kazakhstani census, held in February 1999, showed that for the first time since 1926, ethnic Kazakhs make up more than half of the country’s population. In November, a group of 22 people, including 12 Russian citizens, was arrested in Ust-Kamenogorsk on suspicion of preparing a separatist uprising with the aim of establishing an independent Russian republic in the northeastern part of Kazakhstan.

Freedom of association, while generally respected, was sometimes hindered by complicated requirements that restrict this right to hold political gatherings. The government cited minor infractions of the law, frequently related to unsanctioned assembly, to arrest and detain government opponents arbitrarily.

The law gives workers the right to join or form unions. The Confederation of Free Trade Unions claims membership of about 250,000; the actual number of independent trade union members, however, is estimated to be much lower. To obtain legal status, an independent union must apply for registration with local judicial authorities and with the ministry of justice. Registration is generally lengthy, difficult, and expensive. Independent unions gravitated towards opposition candidates but turned more pro-government earlier this year when the authorities introduced protectionist trade policies aimed at supporting domestic industries. The law does not provide mechanisms to protect workers who join independent unions from threats and harassment by enterprise management or state-run unions. Members of independent unions have been dismissed, transferred to lower- paying jobs, threatened, and intimidated.

The constitution significantly constrains the independence of the judiciary. The president appoints three of the seven members of the constitutional council, including the chairman. All judges are appointed directly by the president. Rights to an attorney and a public trial have been denied political detainees. Corruption is evident at every level of the judicial system.

There is no legal discrimination against women, but traditional cultural practices limit their role in society and in owning or managing businesses and property. Women are severely underrepresented in higher positions in government and in the leadership of state enterprises and overrepresented in low-paying and menial jobs.

Under the 1995 constitution, private property is an inviolable right. Basic rights of entrepreneurship are codified, but bureaucratic hurdles and the control of large segments of the economy by clan elites and government officials who are loyal to President Nazarbayev impede equal opportunity and fair competition.