Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved two Resolutions: on the compliance of presidential candidates with the legislation and on the organization of activities of foreign observers and accreditation of representatives of foreign media

On April 12, 2019, there was a meeting of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan, attended by representatives of political parties and a number of state bodies. Two Resolutions were considered and adopted at the meeting:

1. “On the verification of compliance of presidential candidates with the requirements of the legislation at the early election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for June 9, 2019”;

2. “On the organization of the activities of observers of foreign states, international organizations, representatives of foreign media at the early election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for June 9, 2019”.

Both draft Resolutions were presented by Zauresh Baimoldina, Member of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

“On the verification of the compliance of presidential candidates with the requirements of the legislation at the early election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for June 9, 2019”

The Constitution establishes the following requirements for presidential candidates:

Clauses 2 и 3 of Article 33:

- Citizens of the Republic have the right to elect and be elected to state bodies and bodies of local self-government, as well as to participate in a republican referendum.

-The citizens, who have been recognized by a court as legally incapable, including those who kept in places of confinement under the court’s sentence, shall not take part in elections.

Clause 2 of Article 41:

- A citizen of the Republic by birth who is at least forty years old, fluent in the state language, who has lived in Kazakhstan for the last fifteen years and has a higher education, can be elected President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Constitutional Act may establish additional requirements for candidates for the President of the Republic.

The following requirements are fixed by the Constitutional Act on Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan:

Clause 4 of Article 4:

A candidate for the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan can not be:

1) a person with a prior conviction, which has not been cancelled or withdrawn in the order established by Act;

2) a person, who has been found guilty of committing corruption crime or offense by the court in the order established by Act.

Clause 1 of Article 54:

To be elected as a President, a citizen should have a work experience in public service or elective government positions for at least 5 years, and also should have the right to vote.

Clause 2 of Article 54 states that the Central Election Commission establishes the compliance of the candidate for the President with the Constitution and this Constitutional Act within five days from the date of submission of an extract from the protocol of the meeting of the highest body of the republican public association on the nomination of the candidate and a document certifying the candidate’s payment of the election contribution.

As for the candidate’s statement of consent to run, this form was approved by a resolution No. 10/233 of the Central Election Commission of April 10 of this year.

The statement is accompanied by biographical data in accordance with the separate form, information on work experience in public service or in elective government positions, and a document certifying the payment of the election contribution.

It should be noted that the presidential candidate makes an election contribution to the account of the Central Election Commission at a rate of fifty times of the minimum wage established by Act.

If there is a full package of documents, the Central Election Commission accepts them for consideration.

From the moment of receipt of these documents, the Central Election Commission sends requests to the authorized state bodies:

After receiving relevant information from authorized bodies, the Central Election Commission draws up a protocol on establishing the compliance of the candidate for the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the requirements set forth by the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Constitutional Act of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan”, the form of which is established by resolution No. 10/233 of the Central Election Commission of 10 April of this year.

In the above protocol, the Central Election Commission establishes the candidate’s compliance or non-compliance with the requirements of the legislation, including proficiency in the state language based on the conclusion of the linguistic commission.

The procedure for establishing the candidate’s fluency in the state language is determined by a resolution of the Central Election Commission.

The protocol shall be signed by all members of the Central Election Commission.

At the same time, information received from state bodies shall be attached to the protocol.

In addition, the draft provides for a deadline for the CEC to send requests to the authorized bodies and a timeframe for them to respond to these requests.

“On the organization of the activities of observers of foreign states, international organizations, representatives of foreign media at the early election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for June 9, 2019”

Last year, a new provision was introduced into the Constitutional Act on Elections that foreign countries and international organizations have the right to be accompanied by an interpreter.

It was proposed to fix this provision by a resolution of the Central Election Commission.

The Constitutional Act on Elections envisages an appropriate monitoring procedure. In this regard, it was proposed to provide for a resolution that observers of foreign states and international organizations are accredited to the CEC on the recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Thus, a representative of a foreign media can observe the elections if there is an accreditation certificate issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On April 10, 2019, the Calendar Plan of the main activities for the preparation and conduct of the early election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for June 9, 2019, was approved.

A deadline for accreditation was established based on its provisions.

In this regard, the draft Resolution establishes that the accreditation ends at 6 pm local time five days before the voting day, i.e. on June 3, 2019.

Following the extended meeting, a press conference was held at the Central Election Commission with the participation of media representatives, where members of the CEC of Republic of Kazakhstan answered all questions from the media.