ODIHR final observation reports on recent early elections in Kazakhstan offer recommendations to improve electoral process

Kazakhstan's 20 November 2022 early presidential and 19 March 2023 early parliamentary elections took place in the context of reforms aimed at bringing the country's elections closer in line with international standards and OSCE commitments, but further changes to the legal framework are needed for conducting democratic elections and ensuring genuine pluralism, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in its final reports published today.

ODIHR concluded that while the legal amendments to the electoral legislation introduced so far addressed several prior ODIHR recommendations, limits on the exercise of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms remain and prevent some political groups from participating in elections.

Both votes were efficiently prepared and election day was calm in both elections, ODIHR said. Nevertheless, significant procedural irregularities and omissions during counting and tabulation undermined the transparency of the process.

The reports offer recommendations to bring elections in Kazakhstan closer in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections.

Key recommendations include:

• Taking further efforts to enable a fully genuine pluralistic and competitive political environment;
• Reviewing the electoral legal framework and legislation on fundamental freedoms through an inclusive, timely and consultative process in line with international standards;
• Removing undue restrictions on candidacy for the presidential post and on political party registration;
• Ensuring a meaningful exercise of the right to peaceful assembly by reviewing the existing legislation and its implementation;
• Revising the rules for the appointment of election commissioners to ensure their independence and impartiality at all levels;
• Repealing criminal sanction for defamation in favour of civil remedies in line with international standards;

• Limiting or blocking websites only in cases where such limitation is in line with international standards;

• Allowing unrestricted access of citizen and international observers to the entire electoral process, including during voting, counting and tabulation of voting results;
• Enhancing the transparency and integrity of the electoral process, including by publishing disaggregated election results.

The ODIHR election observation missions also assessed the country's efforts to implement previous recommendations through changes in legislation, procedures and practices. For Kazakhstan, the ODIHR mission evaluated the follow-up to recommendations from the 2019 presidential election, the 2021 parliamentary elections and the 2022 referendum, and concluded that three recommendations had been fully implemented, another three mostly implemented, and 24 partially addressed, while others are still outstanding.

All 57 countries across the OSCE region have formally committed to follow up promptly on ODIHR's election assessments and recommendations.