Kazakhstan kicks off presidential election
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-04 15:42

E-VOTING TECHNOLOGY FROM BELARUS

Early results from a controversial Belarus-designed electronic voting system that is used alongside paper ballots are expected on Monday morning, election officials have said.

The opposition has said it will not break the law by arranging spontaneous demonstrations against alleged vote-rigging like those that swept through Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan and ousted long-serving leaders.

But the authorities have not taken any chances, closing the border with neighbour Kyrgyzstan and issuing statements in recent weeks saying they would come down hard on any disorder.

Tuyakbai, 58, running for opposition alliance For a Just Kazakhstan, has focused his campaign on corruption scandals under Nazarbayev and his family's business interests.

His first step as president would be to cut presidential terms to five years from seven and limit presidents to one term, he says. "Power corrupts people," said Nikolai, a 60-year-old doctor who said he voted for Tuyakbai. "Fifteen years in power is way too long ... At least Tuyakbai will try to fight corruption."

Three other candidates are also running, including Alikhan Baimenov, a former labour minister who has broken away from the main opposition bloc.

The only parliamentary seat that the opposition won in a flawed vote last year was awarded to him on a party list system, but he did not take it up in protest.

In Astana, Oktobrina, a retired doctor said she voted for Nazarbayev due to his economic reforms.

"Just look around you, people have really started to live better here, look at how well they are dressed and how many cars there are," she said.

But in the more opposition-minded Almaty, Nina, also a pensioner, said: "I find it difficult to approve of Nazarbayev's inner circle and the fact there was so much dirt thrown at Tuyakbai on television."

Asked how he voted, one young man, reflecting how much the Ukrainian and Georgian "revolutions" have rocked the former Soviet Union, joked: "Yushchenko", the victor in Ukraine's Orange Revolution last year.