Training Workshop for Observers

On December 22, 2020, a workshop was held to clarify the basics of election observation in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which was organized within the educational project "Academy of NGOs" by the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan together with the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Members of the CEC of the Republic of Kazakhstan and heads of public organizations acted as lecturers at the workshop.

Moderator of the workshop, Chairman of the Committee for Civil Society Affairs of the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Madiyar Kozhakhmet, emphasized the relevance of educational and explanatory activities, given the increased activity of subjects of national observation and the need to increase the level of legal culture of participants in the electoral process.

The first speaker, member of the CEC of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Yerlan Dauylbayev made a report "Legal bases for organizing and holding elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament and maslikhats according to a proportional system", preliminarily dwelling on the features of the current electoral campaign related to the proportional system of elections of deputies of local representative bodies.

The next speaker, Chingiz Lepsibayev, President of the Eurasian Expert Council NGO, as the organizer of various projects on electoral observation emphasizing the importance of holding training workshop, in his presentation of the report "On international documents regulating public observation of elections" he told in detail about the methods on which independent observation in many countries of the world is based, about the main international documents ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan and their experience in monitoring the elections of international organizations, in particular, the OSCE.

Member of the CEC of the Republic of Kazakhstan Serik Sydykov, in his speech on the topic "Legal bases of observation of elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan", explained the issues of exercising the powers of observers established in the Constitutional Act of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan".

Noting that the legal ignorance of individual participants in the electoral process, reflected in the electoral procedures, required an additional clarification of the set of rules concerning the rights and obligations of the subjects of the electoral process, the speaker dwelled on the Central Election Commission's resolution of December 4 this year. No. 44/371.

Serik Sydykov paid attention to the issue of sending election observers from public associations and non-profit organizations in terms of the compliance of the monitoring functions with their statutory goals, noting that the amendments to the statutes are of a notification nature. The lecturer explained the set of legal norms regulating this issue about the possibility of observers' video broadcasting from the polling station. The resolution adopted by the Central Election Commission does not prohibit photo, audio and video recording, but warns of the need to protect the secrecy of voting and personal data of voters.

President of the "Civil Alliance of Kazakhstan" Association of Legal Entities Banu Nurgaziyeva told about the formation of a pool of more than 10 thousand observers in the regions at the moment, preparation of an observer's diary and booklets with excerpts from legislation.

Aigul Solovyova, Chairman of the Board of the "Association of Environmental Organizations of Kazakhstan" Association of Legal Entities informed about the initiative to develop a Charter on impartial and fair election observation as a guideline for compliance with international obligations and standards in the field of election observation.

At the end of the workshop, the speakers provided detailed answers.

Given the great public interest in the topic (about five hundred applications), the online workshop, held on the ZOOM platform, was simultaneously broadcast on the YouTube channel "Academy of NGOs: a workshop to explain the basics of election observation"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDhMB-MxEDo&feature=youtu.be