1.
President of Kazakhstan
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The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the head of state, Commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Republic of Kazakhstan. The authorities of this position are described in section of Constitution of Kazakhstan. The position was established on 24 April 1990, a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the first, and as of 2017 current and only President of Kazakhstan is Nursultan Nazarbayev. The President of Kazakhstans decorations include a breast mark and Standard of The President of Kazakhstan, according to a post The President of Kazakhstan granted cavalierity of the order of the Gold Eagle. Article 46 says that the Presidents honor and dignity shall be inviolable, item 4 of the article outlines the special status and authority of the first president, and refers to a special constitutional act for definitions. According to this act, the first president possesses total, absolute, and till the death he sustains the government official. There is also pointed medical care, sanatorium, provision of pensions, on April 26,2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev was re-elected for his 5th presidency. The official ceremony of the inauguration took place at the Palace of Independence in Astana on April 29, prior to the 2011 election, President Nazarbayev wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post titled Kazakhstan’s steady progress toward democracy. Kazakhstans 5th presidential election was held on April 26,2015, Nursultan Nazarbayev was re-elected with 97. 7% of the vote. 858 observers from 19 countries were present at the stations during the election. OSCE spokesperson Cornelia Jonker criticised the lack of a choice for voters. The first column consecutively numbers the individuals who have served as president, list of leaders of Kazakhstan Official website of Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev Biography
2.
Parliament of Kazakhstan
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The Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the bicameral legislature of Kazakhstan, according to the 1995 Constitution of Kazakhstan. The lower house is the Majilis, with 107 seats, and are elected to four year terms, the upper house is the Senate, which has 47 members. As of January 2007, 10% of the representatives are women and 19% of local. Its predecessor was the Supreme Soviet, Kazakhstan held elections to the Senate on 1 October 2014. According to the Central Electoral Commission of Kazakhstan, it was an open, the OSCE commented that Preparations for the 26 April election were efficiently administered, however, necessary reforms for holding genuine democratic elections still have to materialize. The predominant position of the incumbent and the lack of genuine opposition limited voter choice, a restricted media environment stifled public debate and freedom of expression. About 250 observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization were present for the voting, four women were among the 80 candidates vying for the 16 open Senate seats. The results to be announced on 7 October 2014, List of Chairmen of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic Politics of Kazakhstan List of legislatures by country List of political parties in Kazakhstan Parliament website
3.
Mazhilis
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The Mazhilis is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Kazakhstan, known as the Parlamenti, in the Government of Kazakhstan. The upper house of Parliament is the Senate of Kazakhstan, members of Parliament are elected to five year terms. International observers reported procedural violations in the Majlis voting, the new parliament, which was seated in January 1996, included sixty-eight Kazak and thirty-one Russian deputies, even ten deputies were women
4.
Senate of Kazakhstan
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The Senate of Kazakhastan is the upper house of two chambers in Kazakhstans legislature, known as the Parliament. Members of the Senate are elected on the basis of indirect suffrage by secret ballot, half of elected members of the Senate are up for election every three years. Fifteen members are appointed by the President of Kazakhstan with the view to ensure representation for all the national, cultural components of society. The term of office for the members of the Senate is 6 years, the Chairman of the Senate is a person elected by the Senate among the members of the House by a secret voting majority from the total number of deputies of the House. The candidature on the post of the Chairman of the Senate is nominated by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, kassym-Jomart Tokayev is the current Chairman of the Senate. There are two Deputy Chairmen of the Senate A member of the Parliament must be a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan who has been a permanent resident on its territory over the last ten years. Powers of a member of the Parliament commence from the moment of registration as a member of the Parliament by the Central Election Commission of the Republic. Administration of the oath is done by the President at a ceremony in the presence of members of the Government, senators, along with all other MPs, must participate in the work of the Parliament and its bodies, they may only vote in person. Member of the Senate exercises the right of a vote on all issues considered at sessions of Parliament. Committees of the Senate hold visiting sessions across regions in order to examine public opinion on bills under consideration by the Parliament, up to now members of the Senate have made more than thousand inquiries on various issues of state and public life. Parliament’s involvement in international activity of Kazakhstan and engagement of MPs in identifying and implementing foreign policy of our country has significantly increased, Parliament website Kazakhstan, Senate Selection Holds Unusual Significance
5.
Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan is the worlds largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the regions GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people as of 2014, Given its large area, its population density is among the lowest. The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire, following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times, in 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Kazakhstans 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, the Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. The name Kazakh comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, to wander, the name Cossack is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means land or place of, so Kazakhstan can be translated as land of the wanderers. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, the regions climate, archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the regions vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians, the Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate, throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south, at its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania
6.
Electoral fraud
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Electoral fraud, election manipulation, or vote rigging is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about a result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates. What constitutes electoral fraud under law varies from country to country, many kinds of election fraud are outlawed in electoral legislation, but others are in violation of general laws, such as those banning assault, harassment or libel. Show elections, in only one candidate can win, are sometimes classified as electoral fraud. In national elections, successful electoral fraud can have the effect of a coup détat or corruption of democracy, in a narrow election, a small amount of fraud may be enough to change the result. Even if the outcome is not affected, revelation of fraud can have an effect, if not punished. A list of threats to voting systems, or electoral fraud methods considered as sabotage, is kept by the National Institute of Standards, Electoral fraud can occur in advance of voting if the composition of the electorate is altered. The legality of this type of manipulation varies across jurisdictions, deliberate manipulation of election outcomes is widely considered a violation of the principles of democracy. In many cases it is possible for authorities to control the composition of an electorate in order to produce a foregone result. One way of doing this is to move a number of voters into the electorate prior to an election. Many countries prevent this with rules stipulating that a voter must have lived in a district for a minimum period in order to be eligible to vote there. However, such laws can also be used for demographic manipulation as they tend to disenfranchise those with no fixed address, such as the homeless, travelers, Roma, students, another strategy is to permanently move people into an electoral district, usually through public housing. One notable example of this occurred in the City of Westminster in England under Shirley Porter, immigration law may also be used to manipulate electoral demography. A method of manipulating primary contests and other elections of party leaders is related to this, people who support one party may temporarily join another party in order to elect a weak candidate for that partys leadership. The goal ultimately is defeat of the candidate in the general election by the leader of the party that the voter truly supports. The composition of an electorate may also be altered by disenfranchising some classes of people, from the turn of the century into the late 1960s, most African Americans in the southern states of the former Confederacy were disenfranchised by such measures. Compared to most European nations, many states in the US have much more severe laws that prevent convicted felons who have served their sentences from ever voting again, groups may also be disenfranchised by rules which make it impractical or impossible for them to cast a vote. Communities may also be effectively disenfranchised if polling places are situated in areas perceived by voters as unsafe, in some cases voters may be invalidly disenfranchised, which is true electoral fraud
7.
Censorship
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Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, Censorship could be direct or indirect, in which case it is referred to as soft censorship. Direct censorship may or may not be legal, depending on the type, location, there are no laws against self-censorship. In 399 BC, Greek philosopher, Socrates, defied attempts by the Greek state to censor his philosophical teachings and was sentenced to death by drinking a poison, hemlock. Socrates student, Plato, is said to have advocated censorship in his essay on The Republic, in contrast to Plato, Greek playwright Euripides defended the true liberty of freeborn men, including the right to speak freely. In 1766, Sweden became the first country to abolish censorship by law, the rationale for censorship is different for various types of information censored, Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise considered morally questionable. Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential and away from the enemy. This is used to counter espionage, which is the process of gleaning military information, political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. This is often done to control over the populace and prevent free expression that might foment rebellion. Religious censorship is the means by which any material considered objectionable by a religion is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones, alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their religion. Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc, throughout the bloc, the various ministries of culture held a tight rein on their writers. Cultural products there reflected the needs of the state. Party-approved censors exercised strict control in the early years, in the Stalinist period, even the weather forecasts were changed if they suggested that the sun might not shine on May Day. Under Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania, weather reports were doctored so that the temperatures were not seen to rise above or fall below the levels which dictated that work must stop. Independent journalism did not exist in the Soviet Union until Mikhail Gorbachev became its leader, pravda, the predominant newspaper in the Soviet Union, had a monopoly. Foreign newspapers were available if they were published by Communist Parties sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production and distribution of samizdat, illegal self-published books, possession of even a single samizdat manuscript such as a book by Andrei Sinyavsky was a serious crime which might involve a visit from the KGB
8.
Voting machine
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A voting machine is a machine used to register and tabulate votes. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is more common to use electronic voting machines. Traditionally, a machine has been defined by the mechanism the system uses to cast votes. Voting machines have different levels of usability, security, efficiency and accuracy, certain systems may be more or less accessible to all voters, or not accessible to those voters with certain types of disabilities. They can also have an effect on the ability to oversee elections. The first major proposal for the use of voting machines came from the Chartists in 1838, among the radical reforms called for in The Peoples Charter were universal suffrage and voting by secret ballot. The Chartist voting machine, attributed to Benjamin Jolly of 19 York Street in Bath and this matched the requirements of a British parliamentary election. Each voter was to cast his vote by dropping a ball into the appropriate hole in the top of the machine by the candidates name. Each voter could vote once because each voter was given just one brass ball. The ball advanced a clockwork counter for the candidate as it passed through the machine. In 1875, Henry Spratt of Kent received a U. S. patent for a machine that presented the ballot as an array of push buttons. Spratts machine was designed for a typical British election with a plurality race on the ballot. In 1881, Anthony Beranek of Chicago patented the first voting machine appropriate for use in an election in the United States. Beraneks machine presented an array of buttons to the voter, with one row per office on the ballot. Interlocks behind each row prevented voting for more than one candidate per race, a document ballot voting system can allow for manual or electronic tabulation. Punched card systems employ a card and a small clipboard-sized device for recording votes, voters punch holes in the cards with a ballot marking device. After voting, the voter may place the ballot in a ballot box, the idea of voting by punching holes on paper or cards originated in the 1890s and inventors continued to explore this in the years that followed. By the late 1890s John McTammanys voting machine was used widely in several states, in this machine, votes were recorded by punching holes in a roll of paper comparable to those used in player pianos, and then tabulated after the polls closed using a pneumatic mechanism
9.
Ballot box
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When very large ballot papers are used, there may be a feeder mechanism to assist in the deposit of the paper into the box. Transparent ballot boxes may be used in order for people to be able to witness that the box is empty prior to the start of the election, at the close of the election all boxes can be taken to a single location for tallying and the result declared. Alternately the boxes can be tallied at the station, with individual stations announcing their results to be tallied. Ballot boxes are obsolete in some jurisdictions because of the increase in electronic voting. The word ballot derives from voting based upon the use of a small ball instead of a voting paper. The first British secret ballot using ballot papers and a box was held in Pontefract on 15 August 1872. In a ministerial by-election following his appointment as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the original ballot box, sealed in wax with a liquorice stamp, is held at Pontefract Museum. See Checkbox Ballot Election fraud Four boxes of liberty Secret ballot Media related to Ballot boxes at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Absentee ballot
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An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Numerous methods have been devised to facilitate this, the reasons for allocating voters to specific polling stations are generally logistical. In the electoral terminology of some countries, such as Australia, Early voting, proxy voting or postal voting are separate concepts in these countries. To cast a vote, the user appoints someone as their proxy. The proxy must be trusted by the voter, as in a secret there is no way of verifying that they voted for the correct candidate. In an attempt to solve this, it is not uncommon for people to nominate an official of their party as their proxy. Corporations and organizations routinely use Internet voting to elect officers and Board members, Internet voting systems have been used privately in many modern nations and publicly in the United States, France, the UK, Switzerland and Estonia. Several cantons have run pilot programs to allow citizens to vote via the Internet since 2001, approval of the pilot experience has led to the expansion of the program to include an additional canton and Swiss living abroad. Voters obtain their passwords to access the ballot through the postal service, most voters in Estonia can cast their vote in local and parliamentary elections, if they want to, via the Internet, as most of those on the electoral roll have access to an e-voting system. All a voter needs is a computer, a card reader, their ID card and its PIN. Estonian e-votes can only be cast during the days of advance voting, on Election Day itself people have to go to polling stations and fill in a paper ballot. Ballots are sent via email to the Johnson Spaceflight Center. In Australia the term absentee ballot refers specifically to the procedure used when a voter attends a place which is not in the electoral district in which they are registered to vote. Postal voting and early voting are separate procedures also available to voters who would not be in their electoral districts on a voting day. In all German elections, postal votes are available on demand, the requirement for an excuse has been removed in 2008 for elections on the federal level. As of now, India does not have a ballot system for all citizens. Section 20 of the RPA-1950 disqualifies a non-resident Indian from getting his/her name registered in the electoral rolls, consequently, it also prevents an NRI from casting his/her vote in elections to the Parliament and to the State Legislatures. In August 2010, Representation of the People Bill-2010 which allows voting rights to NRIs was passed in both Lok Sabha with subsequent gazette notifications on Nov 24,2010
11.
Proxy voting
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A person so designated is called a proxy and the person designating him or her is called a principal. Proxy appointments can be used to form a bloc that can exercise greater influence in deliberations or negotiations. Proxy voting is an important practice with respect to corporations, in the United States. X. Proxy voting is also an important feature in corporate governance through the proxy statement, the rules of some assemblies presently forbid proxy voting. For example, in houses of the U. S. Congress, as well as in most if not all state legislatures, each member must be present. This can result, however, in the absence of a quorum and it is possible for automatic proxy voting to be used in legislatures. This proposal would allow for representation of minority views in legislative deliberations, such a concept was proposed in a submission to the 2007 Ontario Citizens Assembly process. Two real-life examples of weighted voting include the Council of Ministers of the European Union, the Parliament of New Zealand allows proxy voting. Sections 155-156 of the Standing Orders of the New Zealand House of Representatives specify the procedures for doing so, a member can designate another member or a party to cast his vote. However, a party may not exercise proxies for more than 25% of its members, the New Zealand Listener notes a controversial occurrence of proxy voting. The Labour Party was allowed to cast votes on behalf of Taito Phillip Field, theoretically, this was to be allowed only if a legislator was absent on parliamentary business, public business or pressing private business, such as illness or bereavement. Until the Republican reforms of 1995 banished the practice, proxy voting was used in U. S. House of Representatives committees. Often members would delegate their vote to the member of their party in the committee. Republicans opposed proxy voting on the grounds that it allowed an indolent Democratic majority to move legislation through committee with antimajoritarian procedures and that is, the Democratic leader in the committee would successfully oppose the sitting Republican majority by wielding the proxies of absent Democrats. Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein write, In a large and fragmented institution in every member has five or six places to be at any given moment. Proxy voting is sometimes described as the frequency with which spouses, union workers, the potential for proxy voting exists in roughly one voter out of five, and it is about twice as high at the middle levels of the sophistication continuum. According to W. Russell Neuman, the net effect of the cues provided by friends, the possibility of expanded use of proxy voting has been the subject of much speculation. One of the criticisms of proxy voting is that it carries a risk of fraud or intimidation, another criticism is that it violates the concept of a secret ballot, in that paperwork may be filed, for instance, designating a party worker as ones proxy
12.
Electronic voting
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Electronic voting is voting using electronic means to either aid or take care of the chores of casting and counting votes. Electronic voting technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting systems and it can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet. Many insecurities have been found in commercial voting machines, such as using a default administration password, cases have also been reported of machines making unpredictable, inconsistent errors. Electronic voting technology can speed the counting of ballots, reduce the cost of paying staff to count votes manually and can provide improved accessibility for disabled voters. However, there has been contention, especially in the United States, in addition, electronic voting has been criticised as unnecessary and expensive to introduce. Several countries have cancelled e-voting systems or decided against a large-scale rollout, notably the Netherlands, Electronic voting systems for electorates have been in use since the 1960s when punched card systems debuted. Their first widespread use was in the USA where 7 counties switched to this method for the 1964 presidential election, the newer optical scan voting systems allow a computer to count a voters mark on a ballot. DRE voting machines which collect and tabulate votes in a machine, are used by all voters in all elections in Brazil and India, and also on a large scale in Venezuela. They have been used on a scale in the Netherlands but have been decommissioned after public concerns. Sometimes called a document ballot voting system, paper-based voting systems originated as a system where votes are cast and counted by hand, with the advent of electronic tabulation came systems where paper cards or sheets could be marked by hand, but counted electronically. These systems included punched card voting, marksense and later digital pen voting systems, Systems including a ballot marking device can incorporate different forms of assistive technology. In 2004, Open Voting Consortium demonstrated the Dechert Design a General Public License open source paper ballot printing system with open source bar codes on each ballot, after the election it produces a tabulation of the voting data stored in a removable memory component and as a printed copy. The system may provide a means for transmitting individual ballots or vote totals to a central location for consolidating and reporting results from precincts at the central location. These systems use a precinct count method tabulates ballots at the polling place. They typically tabulate ballots as they are cast and print the results after the close of polling, in 1996, after tests conducted on more than 50 municipalities, the Brazilian Electoral Justice has launched their voting machine. Since 2000, all Brazilian voters are able to use the ballot boxes to choose their candidates. In 2010 presidential election, which had more than 135 million voters, the electronic ballot box is made up of two micro-terminals which are connected by a 5-meter cable. Externally, the micro-terminals have only a keyboard, which does not accept any command executed by the simultaneous pressure of more than one key
13.
DRE voting machine
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After the election it produces a tabulation of the voting data stored in a removable memory component and as printed copy. The system may provide a means for transmitting individual ballots or vote totals to a central location for consolidating and reporting results from precincts at the central location. The device started to be used in 1996, in Brazil. In 2004,28. 9% of the voters in the United States used some type of direct recording electronic voting system. The idea of voting was pursued with much more vigor in the 20th century. Numerous patents were filed in the 1960s, many of them by AVM Corporation, the first direct-recording electronic voting machine to be used in a government election was the Video Voter. This was developed by the Frank Thornber Company in Chicago, both of these machines saw widespread use, over 11,000 Shouptronic machines had been sold by 1993. In the years followed, the rights to the Shouptronic were transferred to Guardian Voting, and then to Danaher Controls. Like all voting machines, DRE systems increase the speed of vote counting and they can also incorporate the most broad assistive technologies for the largest classes of handicapped people, allowing them to vote without forfeiting the anonymity of their vote. These machines can use headphones and other technology to provide the necessary accessibility. DREs can also provide the most robust form of feedback to the voter detecting such possible problems as undervoting and overvoting which may result in a spoiled ballot. This immediate feedback can be helpful in determining voter intent. Additionally, with DRE voting systems there is no risk of exhausting the supply of ballots, and they remove the need for printing of paper ballots. When administering elections in which ballots are offered in multiple languages, for example, King County, Washingtons demographics require them under U. S. federal election law to provide ballot access in Chinese. With any type of ballot, the county has to decide how many Chinese-language ballots to print, how many to make available at each polling place. Any strategy that can assure that Chinese-language ballots will be available at all polling places is certain, at the very least and they further found the DRE-type voting machines, used in parliamentary elections under current German law, permitted voting machines but were unconstitutional without further qualification. The decision does not ban electronic voting but implements a higher standard, diebold Election Systems AccuVote-TS Nedap ES3B SDU voting computers Attacks have also been performed on both DRE machines and optical scan voting machines, which count paper ballots. Whether it is a DRE or an optical scan machine, the opportunity for tampering applies to persons with access and to a lesser extent
14.
Smart card
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A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card is any pocket-sized card that has embedded integrated circuits. Smart cards are made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes polyethylene terephthalate based polyesters, since April 2009, a Japanese company has manufactured reusable financial smart cards made from paper. Smart cards can be either contact or contactless smart card, Smart cards can provide personal identification, authentication, data storage, and application processing. Smart cards may provide strong security authentication for single sign-on within large organizations, in 1968 and 1969 Helmut Gröttrup and Jürgen Dethloff jointly filed patents for the automated chip card. Roland Moreno patented the memory card concept in 1974, an important patent for smart cards with a microprocessor and memory as used today was filed by Jürgen Dethloff in 1976 and granted as USP4105156 in 1978. Three years later, Motorola used this patent in its CP8, at that time, Bull had 1,200 patents related to smart cards. In 2001, Bull sold its CP8 division together with its patents to Schlumberger, in 2006, Axalto and Gemplus, at the time the worlds top two smart card manufacturers, merged and became Gemalto. The first mass use of the cards was as a card for payment in French pay phones. After the Télécarte, microchips were integrated into all French Carte Bleue debit cards in 1992, customers inserted the card into the merchants point of sale terminal, then typed the personal identification number, before the transaction was accepted. Only very limited transactions are processed without a PIN, smart-card-based electronic purse systems store funds on the card so that readers do not need network connectivity. They entered European service in the mid-1990s and they have been common in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, UK, Denmark and Portugal. Since the 1990s, smart-cards have been the Subscriber Identity Modules used in European GSM mobile phone equipment, Mobile phones are widely used in Europe, so smart cards have become very common. Europay MasterCard Visa -compliant cards and equipment are widespread, the United States started using the EMV technology in 2014. Historically, in 1993 several international payment companies agreed to develop specifications for debit and credit cards. The original brands were MasterCard, Visa, and Europay, the first version of the EMV system was released in 1994. In 1998 the specifications became stable, eMVcos purpose is to assure the various financial institutions and retailers that the specifications retain backward compatibility with the 1998 version. EMVco upgraded the specifications in 2000 and 2004, EMV compliant cards were first accepted into Malaysia in 2005 and later into United States in 2014. MasterCard was the first company that was allowed to use the technology in the United States, the United States has felt pushed to use the technology because of the increase in identity theft
15.
Committee
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A committee is a body of one or more persons that is subordinate to a deliberative assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to them more fully than would be possible if the assembly itself were considering them. Committees may have different functions and the type of work that each committee does would depend on the type of organization, a deliberative assembly may form a committee consisting of one or more persons to assist with the work of the assembly. For larger organizations, much work is done in committees and they may have the advantage of widening viewpoints and sharing out responsibilities. They can also be appointed with experts to recommend actions in matters that require specialized knowledge or technical judgment, a governance committee is formed as a separate committee to review the performance of the board and board policy as well as nominate candidates for the board. Coordination and administration A large body may have smaller committees with more specialized functions, examples are an audit committee, an elections committee, a finance committee, a fundraising committee, and a program committee. Large conventions or academic conferences are organized by a coordinating committee drawn from the membership of the organization. Research and recommendations Committees may be formed to do research and make recommendations on a potential or planned project or change, discipline A committee on discipline may be used to handle disciplinary procedures on members of the organization. However, this could be considered a dilatory tactic, generally, committees are required to report to their parent body. Committees do not usually have the power to act unless the body that created it gives it such power. When a committee is formed, a chairman is designated for the committee, sometimes a vice-chairman is also appointed. It is common for the chairman to organize its meetings. The chairman is responsible for running meetings, duties include keeping the discussion on the appropriate subject, recognizing members to speak, and confirming what the committee has decided. Using Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, committees may follow informal procedures, the level of formality depends on the size and type of committee, in which sometimes larger committees considering crucial issues may require more formal processes. Minutes are a record of the decisions at meetings and they can be taken by a person designated as the secretary. For most organizations, committees are not required to keep formal minutes, however, some bodies require that committees take minutes, especially if the committees are public ones subject to open meeting laws. Committees may meet on a basis, such as weekly or more often. The frequency of the meetings depend on the work of the committee, when the committee completes its work, it provides the results in a report to its parent body
16.
Commonwealth of Independent States
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The Commonwealth of Independent States, also called the Russian Commonwealth, is a regional organization formed during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Nine out of the 15 former Soviet Republics are member states, Georgia withdrew its membership in 2008, while the Baltic states chose not to participate. The CIS has few supranational powers but aims to be more than a purely symbolic organization, nominally possessing coordinating powers in the realms of trade, finance, lawmaking and it has also promoted cooperation on cross-border crime prevention. Furthermore, eight of the nine CIS member states participate in the CIS Free Trade Area, three organizations are under the overview of the CIS, namely the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Union State. While the first and the second are military and economic alliances, in March 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union, proposed a federation by holding a referendum to preserve the Union as the Union of Sovereign States. The new treaty signing never happened as the Communist Party hardliners staged a coup in August that year. Following the events of August, the republics had declared their independence fearing another coup, at the same time they announced that the new alliance would be open to all republics of the former Soviet Union, and to other nations sharing the same goals. The CIS charter stated that all the members were sovereign and independent nations, Georgia joined two years later, in December 1993. At this point,12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics participated in the CIS, the three Baltic states did not, reflecting their governments view that the post-1940 Soviet occupation of their territory was illegitimate. In May 2009, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine joined the Eastern Partnership, there are nine full member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, the charter formalised the concept of membership, a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter. Turkmenistan has not ratified the charter and changed its CIS standing to associate member as of 26 August 2005 in order to be consistent with its UN-recognised international neutrality status, thus it does not regard itself as a member of the CIS. In 1993 Ukraine became an Associate Member of CIS, following the 2014 parliamentary election, a new bill to denounce the CIS agreement was introduced. In September 2015 the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Ukraine will continue taking part in CIS on a selective basis, since that month Ukraine has had no representatives in the CIS Executive Committee building. Since its inception, one of the goals of the CIS has been to provide a forum for discussing issues related to the social. To achieve this goal member states have agreed to promote and protect human rights, even before the 1995 human rights treaty, the Charter of the CIS that was adopted in 1991 created, in article 33, a Human Rights Commission sitting in Minsk, Belarus. This was confirmed by decision of the Council of Heads of States of the CIS in 1993, in 1995, the CIS adopted a human rights treaty that includes civil and political as well as social and economic human rights. This treaty entered force in 1998
17.
Sergey Lebedev (politician)
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General of the Army Sergei Nikolaevich Lebedev is an Uzbekistan-born Russian political figure who has been the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States since 2007. He was Director of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service from 2000 to 2007, Lebedev graduated in 1970 from the Chernihiv branch of Kievs Polytechnical Institute. A1978 graduate of the Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Lebedev speaks German, before intelligence work, Lebedev served in the Army during 1971-72. He began his career in 1975 when he joined the KGB and he began duties in the First Chief Directorate in 1975. Lebedev was appointed as Director of the SVR on 20 May 2000, according to news reports, he was appointed to the post because President Vladimir Putin wanted an intelligence chief whom he knows well and has confidence in. Putin and Lebedev met while serving in East Germany, on 5 October 2007, Lebedev was elected the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Center for Defense Information Russia Weekly #238 Renaissance Capital Research Portal
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Kazakh presidential election, 2015
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Early presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 26 April 2015, having been originally scheduled for 2016. The result was a victory for long-term incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Nur Otan, on 14 February 2015, the Peoples Assembly unanimously voted on the initiative to move presidential elections forward from 2016 to 2015. One motivation was that elections would help the development of the country. On 18 February, the Mazhilis unanimously asked President Nursultan Nazarbayev to move the elections, on 19 February, the Senate followed. In the first vote, there was one vote against the initiative, the senators were asked to vote again, and the second vote was unanimous. The first vote was explained as a technical error. On 25 February 2015 Nazarbayev signed a decree scheduling the elections for 26 April. He also confirmed that he would run
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Nursultan Nazarbayev
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Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev is the President of Kazakhstan. He holds the title Leader of the Nation, in April 2015, Nazarbayev was re-elected with almost 98% of the vote. Nazarbayev has suppressed dissent, been accused of human rights abuses by several human rights organizations, no election held in Kazakhstan since independence has met international standards. In 2010 he announced reforms to encourage a multi-party system, in January 2017, President Nazarbayev proposed constitutional reforms that would delegate powers to the parliament. Nazarbayev was born in Chemolgan, a town near Almaty. His father was a labourer who worked for a wealthy local family until Soviet rule confiscated the familys farmland in the 1930s during Joseph Stalins collectivization policy. Following this, his father took the family to the mountains to live out a nomadic existence and his father avoided compulsory military service due to a withered arm he sustained when putting out a fire. At the end of World War II the family returned to the village of Chemolgan and he performed well at school, and was sent to a boarding school in Kaskelen. After leaving school he took up a one-year, government-funded scholarship at the Karaganda Steel Mill in Temirtau and he also spent time training at a steel plant in Dniprodzerzhynsk, and therefore was away from Temirtau when riots broke out there over working conditions. By 20, he was earning a good wage doing incredibly heavy. He joined the Communist Party in 1962, becoming a prominent member of the Young Communist League, and full-time worker for the party, and attended the Karagandy Polytechnic Institute. He was appointed secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Karaganda Metallurgical Kombinat in 1972, in his role as a bureaucrat, Nazarbayev dealt with legal papers, logistical problems and industrial disputes, as well as meeting workers to solve individual issues. In 1984, Nazarbayev became the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, under Dinmukhamed Kunayev, at the 16th session of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in January 1986, Nazarbayev criticized Askar Kunayev, head of the Academy of Sciences, for not reforming his department. Dinmukhamed Kunayev, Nazarbayevs boss and Askars brother, felt deeply angered and betrayed, Kunayev went to Moscow and demanded Nazarbayevs dismissal while Nazarbayevs supporters campaigned for Kunayevs dismissal and Nazarbayevs promotion. Kunayev was ousted in 1986 and replaced by a Russian, Gennady Kolbin, Nazarbayev was named party leader on 22 June 1989-- only the second Kazakh to hold the post. He was Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 22 February to 24 April 1990, on 24 April 1990, Nazarbayev was named the first President of Kazakhstan by the Supreme Soviet. He supported Russian President Boris Yeltsin against the coup in August 1991 by Soviet hardliners. Nazarbayev was close enough to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for Gorbachev to consider him for the post of Vice President of the Soviet Union, however, the Soviet Union disintegrated following the failed coup, though Nazarbayev was highly concerned with maintaining the close economic ties between Kazakhstan and Russia
20.
Kazakh presidential election, 2011
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Early presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 3 April 2011, having been originally scheduled for 2012. The elections were called after a plan for holding a referendum to increase president term limits to 2020 was rejected by the Constitutional Council, Nazarbayev was re-elected for a third term with 95% of the votes and 90% turnout, against three nominal candidates. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has complained about a lack of transparency, Kazakhstan was reported at the 132nd place over 167 on The Economists Democracy Index for 2010, as an authoritarian regime. A referendum on extending presidential term limits was proposed to be held around March 2011, President Nursultan Nazarbayevs term was due to expire in 2012 and the referendum would have bypassed the next two scheduled elections. A Kazakh official stated that the move would help save our efforts, although Nazarbayev rejected the proposal, it would still have gone ahead if 80% of the members of the parliament voted for it, or if a public petition obtained at least 200,000 signatures. Media reports suggested that a petition for the referendum had already signed by 2,600,000 people. The Court therefore referred the matter to the President himself, as required by the Constitution of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev agreed on putting aside the Constitutional referendum and immediately called for an early presidential election. Twenty-two potential candidates were counted before the process began, their number was finally reduced to four. The law requiring fluency in Kazakh was enacted in the 1990s, opponents charged that the test was administered in such a way as to disqualify Nazarbayevs opponents. Nazarbayev himself announced on 11 February 2011 that he would run for reelection and his candidacy was approved on 18 February 2011. Former member of parliament Ualikhan Qaisarov had taken the test on 8 February 2011, in total, eight candidates have either withdrawn their applications or failed the mandatory Kazakh language test. The environmentalist Mels Yeleusizov, even admitted to voting for Nazarbayev, the short timespan before election was cited by opposition leaders as impeding them to prepare and contest the poll. They therefore refused to part in the vote and called for a boycott. The option to vote against all, common in countries, was last legally available in the 1999 presidential election. Independent NGOs such as RFE/RL have reported increasing censorship by Kazakh authorities since February, on March 2, RFE/RL reported severe disruption of access to its websites, allegedly linked to orders received by government-controlled service providers KazTelecom and Nursat. International monitors cited numerous cases of ballot box-stuffing, voter intimidation, the OSCE received multiple reports of people being pressured to vote, and government officials were seen intimidating voters in universities, hospitals and military encampments. Other kinds of reported violations include seemingly identical signatures on voter lists, the OSCE concluded that the vote count lacked transparency and that correct procedures were often disregarded. The OSCE complained about a lack of transparency and competition in the vote
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Nur Otan
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The Nur Otan Democratic Peoples Party, called simply Nur Otan, is the ruling political party in Kazakhstan with over 762,000 members. Since 2007 it is headed by President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev Nazarbayevs predecessor in the party was Bakhytzhan Zhumagulov, the partys First Deputy Chairman is Askar Myrzakhmetov. At the uniting congress the new party outlined a program largely supportive of the government of Nazarbayev, at the last legislative elections under the Otan banner in 2004, the party won 60. 6% of the popular vote and 42 out of 77 seats. Otan merged with Dariga Nazarbayevas Asar on 25 September 2006, increasing the seats by 4 to 46 out of 77. After the merged party was formed, Nazarbayev remarked to his daughter Tell your Asar members that and you are returning to your father. Nazarbayeva said on 19 June 2006 that all parties should combine to create a grouping with which no other party will be able to compete in the next 50 years. In December 2006 it was announced that the Civic Party and the Agrarian Party would follow in Asars path, Nazarbayev said he expected other parties to merge with Otan. Nazarbayev said there should be fewer, stronger parties that efficiently defend the interests of the population, at the subsequent party congress on 22 December 2006, delegates voted to rename the party Nur Otan. In the 18 August 2007 Assembly elections, the party won 88. 05% of the vote, in October 2011 a cooperation agreement was signed in Astana between Nur Otan and the Ukrainian Party of Regions, and another in 2015 with United Russia
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Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan
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The Communist Peoples Party of Kazakhstan is a political party in Kazakhstan. Secretaries of the Central Committee are Vladislav Kossarev, Tulesh Kenzhin, the party was registered on 21 June 2004. At the time of registration, the party had 90,000 members, following the 2004 elections to Mazhilis the party received 1. 98% of total votes. In 2007 elections to Mazhilis the party won 1. 29% of the votes, the CPPK was elected to parliament in the 2012 legislative election. The party emerged due to the split of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, the reason for the split with the CPK was the election of as a secretary of CPK a member of Mazhilis Tolen Tokhtassynov. About 15 thousand members left CPK for CPPK, the founding congress CPPK took place in April 2004, on 21 June 2004 the party was registered with the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan. Following the elections to Mazhilis in 2004 party received 1. 98% of total voters, in 2005 presidential elections CPPK nominated Yerassyl Abylkassymov as its candidate who received 0. 34% of the votes. On 28 March 2007 the CPPK and the CPK held a joint press conference at which they announced an impending merger, CPPK subsequently abandoned the association with the CPK because of the sharp political differences. Leader of CPPK said also that structures of CPK has been completely destroyed, in elections to Mazhilis in 2007 the party won 1. 29% of total votes and did not pass the electoral threshold to Parliament. In the 2012 election, the party won 7. 19% of vote and 7 seats to one of three parties to enter Parliament, and is considered one of the parties loyal to President Nursultan Nazarbayev. In the social sphere – restoration and expansion of social security for the population existed in the country before the reforms of the 1990s. In international relations – support of the process of the republic with the CIS countries. Membership for citizens of Kazakhstan aged from 18 in the CPPK is voluntary, individual, the organizational structure of the CPPK is based on the territorial principle. As of July 2010, CPPK has 1,868 primary party organizations,178 district committees,33 city committees and 14 regional committees as well as 2 city committees in the cities of national importance. The supreme body of CPPK is the Congress convened by the Central Committee at least once in four years, the partys Central Committee organizes and coordinates the entire partys work. Central Committees meetings shall be held at least once in six months, the control-revision commission is accountable to highest authorities. CPPK has a flag and an approved by the Congress of party. The flag is a red flag with a ratio of the width to its length
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Legislature
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A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. Legislatures form important parts of most governments, in the separation of model, they are often contrasted with the executive. Laws enacted by legislatures are known as legislation, legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. The members of a legislature are called legislators, each chamber of legislature consists of a number of legislators who use some form of parliamentary procedure to debate political issues and vote on proposed legislation. There must be a number of legislators present to carry out these activities. Some of the responsibilities of a legislature, such as giving first consideration to newly proposed legislation, are delegated to committees made up of small selections of the legislators. The members of a legislature usually represent different political parties, the members from each party generally meet as a caucus to organize their internal affairs, the internal organization of a legislature is also shaped by the informal norms that are shared by its members. Legislatures vary widely in the amount of power they wield, compared to other political players such as judiciaries, militaries. In 2009, political scientists M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig constructed a Parliamentary Powers Index in an attempt to quantify the different degrees of power among national legislatures, such a system renders the legislature more powerful. Legislatures will sometime delegate their legislative power to administrative or executive agencies, legislatures are made up of individual members, known as legislators, who vote on proposed laws. For example, a legislature that has 100 seats has 100 members, by extension, an electoral district that elects a single legislator can also be described as a seat, as, for, example, in the phrases safe seat and marginal seat. In parliamentary systems of government, the executive is responsible to the legislature which may remove it with a vote of no confidence, names for national legislatures include parliament, congress, diet and assembly. A legislature which operates as a unit is unicameral, one divided into two chambers is bicameral, and one divided into three chambers is tricameral. In bicameral legislatures, one chamber is considered the upper house. In federations, the upper house typically represents the component states. This is a case with the legislature of the European Union. Tricameral legislatures are rare, the Massachusetts Governors Council still exists, tetracameral legislatures no longer exist, but they were previously used in Scandinavia. Legislatures vary widely in their size, among national legislatures, Chinas National Peoples Congress is the largest with 2987 members, while Vatican Citys Pontifical Commission is the smallest with 7
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Bicameralism
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A bicameral legislature is one in which the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers or houses. As of 2015, somewhat less than half of the national legislatures are bicameral. Often, the members of the two chambers are elected or selected using different methods, which vary from country to country and this can often lead to the two chambers having very different compositions of members. However, in many Westminster system parliaments, the house to which the executive is responsible can overrule the other house, some legislatures lie in between these two positions, with one house only able to overrule the other under certain circumstances. For example, one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners as was the case in the Kingdom of England. Others, such as France under the Ancien Régime had a legislature known as the Estates General, which consisted of separate chambers for the clergymen, the nobility. The Founding Fathers of the United States also favoured a bicameral legislature, the idea was to have the Senate be wealthier and wiser. Benjamin Rush saw this though, and noted that, this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence, the Senate was created to be a stabilising force, elected not by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the fickleness. He noted further that the use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with system and with more wisdom. Madisons argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, the Senate was chosen by state legislators, and senators had to possess a significant amount of property in order to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In fact, it was not until the year 1913 that the 17th Amendment was passed, as part of the Great Compromise, they invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate would have states represented equally, and the House would have them represented by population. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British three-tier model, nevertheless, the older justification for second chambers—providing opportunities for second thoughts about legislation—has survived. An example of controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the Canadian Senate or the election of the Senate of France. The relationship between the two chambers varies, in cases, they have equal power, while in others. The first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments, the latter tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems. In the United States both houses of the U. S and this is due to their original location in the two-story building that was to house them. In Canada, the country as a whole is divided into a number of Senate Divisions, each with a different number of Senators, Senators in Canada are not elected by the people but are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister
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United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
26.
Kazakh presidential election, 1999
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Presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 10 January 1999. Incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev won the election with over 80% of the vote, most observers viewed the election as blatantly unfair, further confirming that Nazarbayev was not interested in promoting a democratic system of government. Voter turnout was reported to be 87. 0%, kazakhstans second presidential election was originally scheduled to occur in 1996. However, after a 1995 referendum the date was set to be in December 2000. Parliamentary action in the fall of 1998, however, ultimately resulted in the election occurring in early 1999, on 7 October 1998, nineteen amendments to the constitution were passed by Parliament and signed into law by President Nazarbayev. One amendment to article 94 reads, Acting under this new amendment, the president agreed, after which the Majilis set January 10,1999 as the date for new elections. The main opposition candidate, Akezhan Kazhegeldin, was barred from running in the election, a recently passed law prohibited anyone convicted of a crime from running in the election. Kazhegeldin had recently been convicted of participating in an election rally. For the first time in a Kazakh election, ballots included an option to vote against all candidates, nazarbayevs party, the Party of Peoples Unity of Kazakhstan, was reformed into the Otan Party two months after the election. Even before the election, groups such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe expressed concern about the short preparation, OSCE pressed the Kazakh government to postpone the election so that all candidates could have adequate time to campaign, but to no avail. Vice President Al Gore called Nazarbayev in November 1998 to express concerns about the upcoming election, the lack of fair access to mass media also concerned many observers. According to OSCE, most major media outlets focused disproportionately on Nazarbayev, serikbolsyn Abdilin, the runner-up in the election, claimed widespread voter fraud and a failure to properly count ballots. The U. S. Department of State commented that the nature of the elections cast a shadow on bilateral relations. OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Republic of Kazakhstan Presidential Election,10 January 1999 - Assessment Mission. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
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Kazakh presidential election, 2005
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Kazakhstan held a presidential election on 4 December 2005. Incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, sought, opposition candidates were allowed some access to the mass media, but this was still restricted. According to western election observers, opposition candidates also suffered considerable harassment, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the elections, calling them unfair, but noted improvements. Zamanbek Nurkadilov, described as the figure of the opposition, was unable to take part. A former mayor of Almaty and government minister, Nurkadilov had joined the opposition and he was found shot dead in November, shortly after reportedly saying that he would go public with documents proving government corruption. Near his body was a pillow pierced by bullets that may have used as a silencer. The official cause of death was presented as suicide, with a report stating that Nurkadilov had shot himself twice in the chest, onalsyn Zhumabekov, Chairman of Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission, declared the election valid. About 1,600 observers monitored the election, including 465 from the influential Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
28.
Kazakh legislative election, 2004
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A general election was held on September 19,2004 in Kazakhstan to elect a new government to the Majilis, the legislature of the Parliament of Kazakhstan. 67 are directly elected by the Kazakh people and the remaining 10 are elected by the political party. Media bias is an issue with election watchdogs, the parties, Fatherland Party and All-Together Republican Party, which are pro-president of Kazakhstan are being allowed much more television air-time. Dariga Nazarbayeva is the daughter of the current President Nazarbayev, electronic voting will be used for the first time by 15% of voters. The Sailau system will be used and it is based on technology developed in Belarus. The last elections were held on October 10 and October 24,1999 Media bias mars Kazakhstans election campaign CNN. com Election Watch
29.
Soviet Union referendum, 1991
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A referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held on 17 March 1991. In Kazakhstan, the wording of the referendum was changed by substituting equal sovereign states for equal sovereign republics. Although the vote was boycotted by the authorities in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, the referendums question was approved by nearly 70% of voters in all nine other republics that took part. It was the referendum in the history of the Soviet Union. Do you consider it necessary to preserve the USSR as a single state, do you consider it necessary to preserve the socialist system in the USSR. Do you consider it necessary to preserve in the renovated Union of Soviet power, do you feel the need to safeguard the Union in the renewed human rights and freedoms of any nationality. For the adoption of the first resolution voted in 1553 deputies, against -84, for the adoption of the second resolution voted in 1677 deputies, against -32, abstained -66. Second course was given to the decree, to instruct the USSR Supreme Council set a date for the referendum and ensure its measures. Carry out the territory of the Soviet Union on Sunday,17 March 1991. To determine the results of voting by the Union Soviet Socialist Republic as a whole, a boycott campaign reduced the Against votes in Western Ukraine. An official referendum had been held in Estonia on 3 March 1991 on whether to re-establish the Estonian republic that had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, the result was 77. 8% in favour of re-establishing the Estonian republic. Latvia also held an referendum on 3 March 1991, when the overwhelming majority voted to re-establish the independent Latvian republic. Consequently, in these republics pro-Soviet front-organisations organised voluntary referendums without official sanction, in several of the republics, additional questions were added to the ballot. In Russia, a question was asked on whether an elective post of the president of the Russian SFSR should be created. In Kirghizia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan the additional question was on the sovereignty of their republics as part of a new union, in Kirghizia, voters were also asked Do you agree that the Republic of Kirghizistan should be in the renewed Union as a sovereign republic with equal rights. It was approved by 62. 2% of voters, although turnout was only 81. 7%, compared to 92. 9% in the Union-wide referendum. In the Ukraine, voters were also asked Do you agree that Ukraine should be part of a Union of Soviet sovereign states on the basis on the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, the proposal was approved by 81. 7% of voters. At the same day a referendum in the Galician provinces Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, 88% of the voters in this referendum supported Ukraines independence
