News Roundup - Election - Saturday August 18, 2007

New York Times: Party of Kazakh President Sweeps Seats in Parliament
President Nursultan Nazarbayev tightened his already considerable grip over the political life of this petroleum-blessed former Soviet republic, after weekend parliamentary elections in which his governing party won every seat being contested...
Washington Post: Ruling Party Sweeps Kazakhstan Election, Official Count Shows
The ruling party of Kazakhstan won all of the contested seats in a nationwide parliamentary election this weekend, according to preliminary results announced Sunday...
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Ruling Party Sweeps Kazakh Parliamentary Polls
Preliminary results show Kazakhstan's ruling Nur Otan party has won 88 percent of the vote in August 18 parliamentary elections, leaving the opposition with no seats...
International Herald Tribune: Kazakh Elections Criticized at Home and Abroad
President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party won all available seats in Kazakhstan's new parliament in an election that international observers said Sunday was flawed but still showed the oil-rich country was making progress toward becoming a democracy...
Aljazeera.net: Kazakh ruling party sweeps poll
Nur Otan, the Kazakh president's political party, has won 88 per cent of the vote in a parliamentary election, leaving the opposition with no seats, the central election commission said...
Interfax: Kazakhstan Opposition Doesn't Recognize Election Returns
Kazakhstan's opposition parties Ak Zhol (Bright Path) and Nationwide Social-Democratic Party do not recognize preliminary returns of Saturday's parliamentary elections, announced by the Central Elections Commission...
The Moscow Times: Kazakh President Gets His Landslide
President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party won all available seats in Kazakhstan's new parliament in an election that international observers said Sunday was flawed but that still showed the oil-rich country was making progress toward becoming a democracy...
The Independent: Kazakh Poll Gives All Seats to Nazarbayev
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party won every available seat in a new parliament yesterday after a flawed vote the opposition said turned the clock back to totalitarian Soviet rule...
EuroNews.net: OSCE Criticises Kazakh Election
Kazakhstan's president and his party have swept to a massive landslide election victory, but observers say the parliamentary vote failed to meet international standards...
Time: Democracy — Kazakh-Style
No election in Kazakhstan's 16 years of independence has yet been seen as free and fair by Western observers. If they expected a better showing at the elections for the Majilis (the lower house of the Kazakhstan parliament), held by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev yesterday, they should have known better...
EurasiaNet Insight: Ruling Party Sweeps Parliamentary Polls
Preliminary results show Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party has won 88 percent of the vote in August 18 parliamentary elections, leaving the opposition with no seats. According to the Central Election Commission, neither of the country’s two main opposition parties succeeded in reaching the 7 percent hurdle needed for representation in the 107-member Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported...
The Roberts Report: The Most Un-Anticipated Election in Kazakhstan’s History Approaches…Will Anybody Notice?
Nursultan Nazarbayev has a skill for calling timely elections. Over the years, he has called numerous shot-gun elections that prevent opposition groups from preparing and often catch the international community off guard...
Bloomberg: Kazakhstan Elections Mark Step `Forward,' OSCE Says
Kazakhstan's parliamentary elections, swept by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party, marked some progress in democracy, an international observer mission said...
International Herald Tribune: Kazakhs Suspected of Election Misconduct
Internal documents detailing an apparent exchange between the intelligence services of Kazakhstan and President Nursultan Nazarbayev suggest that the state conducted operations against international election monitors during the presidential election of 2005...