OSCE sets up mission to follow presidential election in Kazakhstan

While speaking to the attendees, Urszula Gacek stated it is the first time her team, which includes Goran Petrov, Deputy head of the mission, experts and analysts, has visited Kazakhstan. After she stressed the open-mindedness of the mission’s members.

“We do not come with any pre-conceived ideas. We have also read the work has been done by previous missions, we take that on board. Ahead of our arrival here, there was also an expert team from Warsaw, who assessed who to deploy, how many of us to deploy. So, we do have good background knowledge, but as I’ve said we came with a completely open mind”, Urszula Gacek said.

Staring off the mission by visiting the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the mission intends to set up multiple meetings while in Kazakhstan, including with its very important partner – the Central Election Commission.

“In the coming days, weeks, we will meet, in this prelection period, with everybody and anybody, who has a part in the election, with candidates, their representatives, with representatives of political parties, media, civil society, government institutions, judiciary, anybody who plays a role in the election process”, she said.

The speaker also introduced Russian media analyst Kira Kalinina, pointing that her team is very international, which includes experts and analysts from Spain, Belarus, the UK, Germany, Poland, and has a good gender balance.

“Our role is to look at the national legislation, the commitments that Kazakhstan has made as one of the 57 participating States to the OSCE, to meet with state holders and get their input, but to make our own judgement on the information received”, she stated.

She also said that the mission would be joined by a team of 22 international long-term observants from OSCE participating States, further breaking down into two teams of 11 in each nationwide.

According to her, the mission requested 300 short-term observants to be in the polling stations.

The day after the election, the mission will make a preliminary statement, which will include their impressions and findings of the pre-election period, and first impressions of the election day. This will be followed by the mission’s most important job, that is the final report. This will take 2 months to come out and has a very important purpose, which will include a series of recommendations. These recommendations are made in the spirit of having a constructive approach.

“We hope those recommendations will serve the Front Office of Kazakhstan in their implementation to increase public confidence both of the domestic community of the people of Kazakhstan, and the international community in the election process”, the mission’s head Ambassador Urszula Józefa Gacek concluded.

Adlet Seilkhanov