On June 24, a meeting of the Central Election Commission was held on organization and conduct of elections of akims of rural districts

The meeting was attended by representatives of political parties, Agency for Civil Service Affairs, General Prosecutor's Office, National Security Committee, Ministries of Justice, Finance, Internal Affairs, Academy of Public Administration under the President, Ministry of Health, territorial election commissions of regions in the videoconferencing regime, and media representatives online.

In the second part of the meeting, the following issues were considered:

5. On financing elections of akims of cities of district significance, villages, townships, rural districts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including the candidates' expenses issues;

6. On organization of electoral training during election campaign for akims of the rural level and educational-methodical complex - "Elections of akims of cities of district significance, villages, townships, rural districts of the Republic of Kazakhstan: the legal basis of the electoral process and organization of the work of election commissions";

7. On measures to prevent spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 in organization and conduct of elections of akims of cities of district significance, villages, townships and rural districts;

8. On approval of instruction on the work and maintenance of Internet pages of territorial election commissions of the Republic of Kazakhstan during elections of akims of cities of regional significance, villages, townships, rural districts.

The Secretary of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sabila Mustafina made a report on the fifth issue of the agenda.

She reported that the Act on the Republican Budget for 2021 provides for expenses for the provision and holding of elections of akims of cities of regional significance, villages, townships, rural districts in the amount of 4.7 billion KZT by the end of this year, taking into account the holding of early elections of akims.

In addition, in accordance with the Constitutional Act "On elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan" the government shall guarantee candidates an equal allocation of funds for speaking with their programs in the media.

Thus, the government shall guarantee candidates equal amounts of funds for speaking with their programs in the media: 15 minutes on television (live or recorded), 10 minutes on radio, for publications in periodicals or online publications of no more than two articles. 0.1 printed sheet.

The amount of expenses allocated to candidates for akims of cities of district significance, villages, settlements, rural districts for performance of candidates in media, holding public pre-election events and issuing campaign materials, transportation costs shall be determined by the relevant regional election commission.

The budget provides for candidate expenses for conduct of pre-election campaigning by candidates for akims of villages, townships, rural districts at the rate of 220 thousand KZT per candidate and 230 thousand KZT for a candidate for akim of a city of district significance.

The funds will be distributed between 14 regions through local executive bodies accounts in accordance with the financing plan. In turn, regional territorial election commissions will distribute funds only to those areas where elections of rural akims are planned.

The spending of funds from the account for financing the elections of akims of cities of district significance, settlements, villages, rural districts for the conduct of elections are carried out by the decision of the chairman of the territorial election commission.

The chairpersons of election commissions manage funds and are directly responsible for the compliance of financial documents with decisions of election commissions on financial matters.

The head of the department of organization of electoral training and analytics of the CEC administration Makhabbat Boleyeva made a report on the sixth issue of the meeting.

She reported that the Central Election Commission had formed and approved an Action Plan for organization of electoral training in preparation for elections of akims of cities of regional significance, villages, townships, rural districts.

The plan was sent to regional TECs as a basis for the development of Step-by-step plans for electoral training in each of the 14 regions. The organization and conduct of electoral training in the regions is carried out at the expense of the local budget.

As part of preparation for the upcoming campaign for the election of akims of the rural level, the CEC has begun implementing a phased set of measures for electoral training.

At the central level - the Central Election Commission held a Republican seminar-meeting for released members of regional and district territorial election commissions. This seminar was attended by heads of the regional akims and heads of the internal policy departments.

At the regional level - in June this year. a series of training seminars organized by regional territorial election commissions were held as a continuation of the cascade training for the district level TECs. To date, 32 seminars have been held in regions, during which more than 3000 organizers of the electoral process have been trained.

Visits of CEC members and staff of the office were carried out in 8 regions to participate in regional seminars in order to monitor organization of electoral process and electoral training. The regional training seminars were attended by district akims and their deputies for social issues, heads of district akims' offices, internal policy departments, representatives of territorial departments of the Civil Service Agency, NSC, prosecutor's office, Department of Internal Affairs, justice, migration service, social protection departments, representatives of regional branches of political parties and media.

M. Boleyeva noted that in some regions training courses for members of TECs and PECs started on the basis of regional branches of the Academy of Public Administration after regional seminars-meetings.

A separate area of ​​organizing electoral training is the CEC's regular videoconferencing seminars for released TEC members. In June this year three training videoconferencing seminars were held on practical and organizational aspects of the activities of election commissions in preparation for the upcoming election campaign.

In addition, the interactive training system "Distance learning and testing of electoral personnel" posted on the CEC's Internet resource was modernized by the CEC together with the Engineering and Technical Center.

Also, by order of the Central Election Commission, professional development and testing of the educational and methodological complex was carried out in the first half of 2021 in order to train members of territorial and precinct election commissions on legal basis of the electoral process and organization of the work of election commissions during elections of akims of cities of district significance, villages, settlements, rural districts of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Aizhan Yesmagambetova, Chairperson of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Control Committee of the Ministry of Health, spoke on the seventh issue of the agenda.

She presented an algorithm to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 to the meeting participants during the organization and conduct of elections of akims of cities of regional significance, villages, townships and rural districts.

According to the Algorithm, all participants in the electoral process at all stages of the election campaign, as well as on election day, must:

1) observe the wearing disposable medical or protective masks regime (hereinafter referred to as masks);

2) use antiseptic agents for hand disinfection;

3) observe social distance between people - at least 1.5 - 2 meters from each other;

4) avoid shaking hands or other forms of direct contact.

Pre-election campaigning events are recommended to be carried out using television, radio, print media, Internet resources, and online.

Members of election commissions, proxies, observers and representatives of the media are allowed to the polling station on voting day with a vaccination passport. If there are medical contraindications for vaccination, they are allowed if there is a negative test result for COVID-19 by PCR, from the date of issue of which no more than 3 days have passed.

The resolution on algorithm for preventing the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 during the organization and conduct akims’ elections of cities of district significance, villages, townships and rural districts was agreed upon by the Protocol of the Central Election Commission.

Anastassiya Schegortsova, a member of the Central Election Commission, made a report on the final issue of the meeting agenda.

According to her report, it is the territorial election commissions that will be the owners of information during the election campaign for the elections of rural akims and accordingly they will be the sources of its dissemination.

The election legislation stipulates that election commissions must ensure free familiarization of all persons with their decisions, which are posted on public telecommunication networks. Therefore, the web pages of territorial election commissions are a key information channel.

Central Election Commission has prepared Instructions on the operation and maintenance of the Internet pages of territorial election commissions of the Republic of Kazakhstan during elections of akims of cities of district significance, villages, townships, rural districts in order to improve process of information support and to develop uniform approaches of territorial election commissions to coverage of the stages of the election campaign.

The instruction provides for a unified algorithm for the work of territorial election commissions on a uniform format for filling Internet pages, terms of posting and content of information.

The instruction defines structure of Internet pages, as well as a list of information materials on elections of akims to be published. This list provides for publication of all decisions and messages of election commissions, as well as other information materials on activities of election commissions and course of the election campaign.

A. Schegortsova noted that all decisions of the TECs adopted on the basis of the norms of electoral legislation are posted on the Internet pages of the respective TECs within the time frame established by law.

The instructions stipulate that information on results of candidate registration and election results will be presented and summarized not only at the district and city levels but also at regional and republican levels, through Internet pages of regional TECs and Internet resource of the Central Election Commission.

Thus, at the meeting of the CEC on eight issues considered three Resolutions of the CEC were adopted:

1. "On approval of main activities' standard calendar plan for preparation and conduct of elections of akims of cities of regional significance, villages, townships, rural districts of the Republic of Kazakhstan";

2. "On establishment of forms of electoral documents for elections of akims of cities of district significance, villages, townships, rural districts of the Republic of Kazakhstan";

3. "On approval of the Instruction on work and maintenance of Internet pages of territorial election commissions of the Republic of Kazakhstan during elections of akims of cities of regional significance, villages, townships, rural districts."