Historic Kazakhstan presidential vote set to usher in little change
THE protest said nothing and, at the same time, so much about Kazakhstan, where voters will today take part in an election void of any real meaning.
Aslan Sagutdinov last month stood in the main square in Uralsk, a city of 300,000 people in north-west Kazakhstan, and held up a blank placard.
Mr Sagutdinov said he wanted to prove that people in Kazakhstan, an oilrich former Soviet state in Central Asia, have no right to protest.
And so it proved: police him within minutes.
“He showed that it doesn’t matter what you protest against, the act of protesting is something not to be tolerated,” said political activist Asya Tulesova.
Although the press is muzzled and opposition rarely heard, authorities are particularly anxious about today’s election. In Kazakhstan’s 28-year post-Soviet history, this is the first time that
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detained Nursultan Nazarbayev, 78, is not on the ballot.
He retired as president in March, although he said he would continue to run the country from his position as head of the National Security Council.
In his place, Mr Nazarbayev promoted Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a wooden bureaucrat best known for claims of heavy Photoshop editing on official photos.
Kazakhs joke that although Mr Tokayev may be in the driving seat, Mr Nazarbayev has his hands on the wheel.
Even so, Kazakhstan has never held an election considered free or fair, and Mr Tokayev is expected to win.
An opposition figure is among the seven candidates for the first time in a presidential vote, but the journalist Amirzhan Kosanov has low national recognition.
According to an opinion poll on the eve of the vote, Mr Tokayev is set to win 73 per cent of the vote with Mr Kosanov the next highest on 8 per cent.
Nevertheless there is a greater sense of frustration among ordinary people than ever before, with rising complaints about corruption and stagnant living standards across the country.
“I won’t be voting for Tokayev,” said Daniyar, a technician at Almaty airport. “But I won’t be going to any protests either, as I don’t want any trouble.”