Kazakhstani legislation governing elections should be improved, a Tengrinews correspondent reports from the international conference in Astana dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Constitution of Kazakhstan referring to Aleksei Kartsov, an expert of the International Institute of Monitoring Democracy Development, Parliamentary and Electoral Rights of citizens at the auspices of the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS. “The regulatory control of the election process in Kazakhstan has space for improvement to better comply with international obligations related to elections undertaken by the country,” Kartsov said.
In particular, the expert mentioned insufficient level of liability for violations involving issuance of ballots that can enable proxy voting. He believes that in Kazakhstan the punishment – a relatively small administrative fine – for such an act is not commensurate with the offence. The liability “is not fully correspondent with danger posed by the violation,” he said.
“According to Article 110 of the new Code of Administrative Offences, it is punishable by a meager fine of 25 monthly calculation indices (around $265), even though issuance of multiple ballots into the same hands is a mean of ballot rigging,” Kartsov said.
He drew attention to the fact that under the national legislation of Kazakhstan, neither issuing ballots to improper persons by a member of the precinct election commission nor ballot-box stuffing are considered crimes.
Full Article: International expert suggests changes to Kazakhstan electoral rules. Laws, Initiatives. Tengrinews.kz.