Kazakhstan: Tokayev primed as shoo-in for snap presidential election
NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — With the announcement of a snap presidential election in Kazakhstan, the power transition game has drawn closer to its culmination. We are republishing the following article on the issue, written by Peter Leonard*, originally published by Eurasianet: While announcing Kazakhstan’s snap presidential election on April 9, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev omitted to say whether he would run. But in just three weeks in charge, he has already begun to look like the leader-in-waiting. Tokayev, 65, has toured the provinces to glad-hand people, popped over to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and announced populist decisions. Billboards with his image have already begun appearing. When Kazakhstan goes to the polls on June 9, the list of options will be very short. It always is. When Nursultan Nazarbayev got 97.5 percent of the vote in April 2015, his only opponents were a pair of faceless nobodies. Initial indications are that the plan is for the new man to be eased into elected high office with similar smoothness. Tokayev attributed the hasty vote to a desire to spare the country the anxiety of not knowing what comes next. “In order to ensure social and political harmony, to confidently move forward, to address the demands of social and economic development, it is necessary to get rid of any uncertainty,” he said during the April 9 televised address. In a message distributed via the Telegram app after the announcement, Tokayev’s recently appointed advisor, Yerlan Karin, reiterated the point and sought to impress the democratic nature of the planned election. “It is not by chance that the head of state emphasized that ‘the president will be elected according to the will of the people.’ This is a key passage in his address,” Karin wrote. And yet, the rules are such that very few people will be able to get over the multiple hurdles placed before prospective candidates. Only officially registered political parties and public organizations may put a person forward. All groups critical of the authorities have been categorically denied such registration, so government-detractors are shut out by default. What is more, candidates should in theory be nominated by their backers no later than two months before the vote. Tokayev’s last-minute declaration elicited indignation for that reason. “What open elections are we talking about if political parties and public organizations have just a little more than one day to put forward their presidential candidate? Under our laws, self-nominated candidates are barred from running,” journalist Vyacheslav Abramov wrote on Twitter. If candidates are not nominated before the deadline, however, election officials will grant another extension of up to 20 days. Should the plan be for him to run, Tokayev’s nomination is a given. That endorsement would invariably come from the ruling Nur-Otan party. Aikyn Konurov, the head of the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan faction in parliament, was quick to express his readiness to compete. Konurov is a lawmaker with little public profile and his party is an ersatz left-wing political formation, so...
