Eighteen observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have been accredited for Kazakhstan's early presidential election. SCO Secretary-General and head of mission Zhang Ming told reporters on Friday.
"The observer mission for the extraordinary presidential election in the Republic of Kazakhstan has started its work from today. Kazakhstan is an SCO member state. As soon as we received an invitation from the Kazakh side, we sent a request to all member states, it received the support of all member states. I myself am the head of this mission, and there are 18 accredited observers in our mission," the secretary-general said.
According to him, these observers include representatives of legislative, executive and electoral bodies of the seven SCO member states as well as the secretariat of the organization and the executive committee of its regional anti-terrorist structure. The head of the mission clarified that they are going to visit polling stations in Astana and Akmola region. "The members of the observer mission will work independently, following the principles of political objectivity, neutrality and non-interference in domestic affairs, and we will carry out our mission honestly and conscientiously," Zhang Min emphasized.
Kazakhstan's early presidential election is scheduled for November 20. According to the law, candidates are nominated by national public associations. Election campaigning will end on November 19 at 00:00 local time (November 18 at 21:00 Moscow time). There will be a day of silence on November 19.
The republic's central election commission registered six candidates for the upcoming elections. These include current head of state Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev from the People's Coalition, economist Meiram Kazhiken from Amanat, Zhiguli Dayrabayev from the Auyl People's Patriotic Democratic Party, Karakat Abden from the National Alliance of Professional Social Workers, Saltanat Tursynbekova from the republican public association Qazaq analary – dasturge zhol (Kazakh mothers are a path to traditions), as well as Nurlan Auesbayev, chairperson of the Astana city branch of the Nationwide Social Democratic Party.
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Photo: Ken and Nyetta/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS