REPORTING ON KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS -

UNCLAS ALMATY 004175

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE),EUR/PPD (JBASEDOW),EUR/ACE
(ESMITH/JMCKANE),DRL/PHD (CKUCHTA-HELBLING)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KDEM KZ
SUBJECT: REPORTING ON KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS -
BETWEEN THE SPIRIT AND LETTER OF THE LAW

Ref: A) Almaty 4074 B) Almaty 3924


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: According to a CIS elections monitoring
representative, media coverage of presidential campaigns in
the first two weeks of November "did not quite correspond"
to legal and constitutional norms. State media are
honoring the letter, if not the spirit, of the information
ministry's demand that all candidates get equal coverage.
Although For a Just Kazakhstan (FJK) candidate Zharmakhan
Tuyakbay received more coverage the first week of
campaigning than any other candidate (ref A),the
television reports were either uninformative or depicted
contentious situations that FJK claims were contrived by
unknown provocateurs. The prosecutor ordered the
confiscation of 100,000 copies of the opposition paper
Zhuma Times in Almaty, and in Uralsk rail freight handlers
destroyed 20,000 opposition papers. Opposition editors and
media advocates sent an appeal on November 12 to the
European Parliament asking for its support. END SUMMARY.

CIS-EMO Sees Pro-Nazarbayev Bias, Accreditation Revoked
-------------- --------------


2. (U) At a press conference November 9, Stepan
Novosel'chan, observation coordinator for the Commonwealth
of Independent States-Election Monitoring Organization (CIS-
EMO),said campaign practices for October 28-November 5
"did not quite correspond to election legislation and
constitutional norms." He cited Tuyakbay campaign posters
being displayed randomly on unauthorized sites like
telephone and power poles, while Nazarbayev campaign
posters dominated the billboards. "I don't think that
reflects the spirit of equal campaigning, when all
billboards display the portrait of one candidate, in
particular, Nazarbayev." He also said more television
reporting was devoted to Nazarbayev, in uniformly positive
reports, while reporting on other candidates was scarce and
tended to be critical.


3. (U) On November 18 the Central Election Commission (CEC)
cancelled CIS-EMO's observer accreditation because it is
not an international organization, a violation of the
electoral code. Marina Bogdanovich, the head of the CIS-
EMO mission Kazakhstan, told journalists the move followed
the mission's interim assessment, which "contained rather
tough accusations regarding the use of administrative
resources and violations of the electoral process." The
mission sent a letter November 21 to the president asking
him to intervene to reverse the decision. Bogdanovich said
the organization will appeal to the Supreme Court of
Kazakhstan if no response is received within a week.


4. (U) A comparison of state television coverage of the For
a Just Kazakhstan (FJK) candidate Zharmakhan Tuyakbay and
President Nazarbayev in the first two weeks of November
corroborates Novosel'chan's assessment. Reports on FJK on
Kazakhstan 1, official successor to the Soviet- era state
television network, and pro-presidential Khabar, which has
the largest audience of Kazakhstani channels, were
consistently negative. Both often depicted contentious
situations that FJK claims were contrived by unknown
provocateurs. Some reports were simply uninformative -
meeting the letter, if not the spirit, of the information
ministry's demand that all candidates get equal coverage on
state media. The reports often showed voters criticizing
Tuyakbay and FJK activists, but little or no on-camera
quotes from Tuyakbay explaining his positions on issues or
proposals.

Bland Reports on FJK Ignore Campaign Issues
--------------


5. (U) Both Khabar and Kazakhstan 1 on November 4 reported
on Tuyakbay's meetings with voters in Kostanay, Karaganda,
Saran, and Atyrau and listed topics of discussion:
employment, demographics, rule of law, social problems, tax
policy and agriculture, without providing any context for
his views. There was no footage of him interacting with
voters, explaining his ideas, or any quotes from his press
conferences. On November 7, Tuyakbay held a press
conference during which he publicly revealed his annual tax
payment and property holdings. He challenged President


Nazarbayev similarly to disclose his tax payments and
property holdings and also to participate in a televised
debate. The report on Kazakhstan 1 showed Tuyakbay at the
press conference, but the voice-over mentioned only that
Tuyakbay had met with voters in Almaty, and had briefly
informed them about his election platform and answered
questions.

Tuyakbay "Fights" With Voters . . .
--------------


6. (U) During the week of November 6, Khabar and Kazakhstan
1 broadcast a series of reports on Tuyakbay's campaign,
none of which highlighted the issues or showed him in a
positive light. One report showed Mukhtar Mukhambetzhan,
the head of the foundation "For Unity of the Country,"
threatening to sue Tuyakbay proxy Serikbolsyn Abdildin for
calling Mukhambetzhan a provocateur. In another report,
Marat Mukhamedzhanov, director of the Semipalatinsk
pedagogical college, said he intended to sue Tolen
Tokhtasynov, the head of Tuyakbay's campaign office, for
allegedly cursing at him during a public event. Kazakhstan
1 reported November 23 that the municipal court of
Semipalatinsk fined Tokhtasynov 48,550 tenge ($360),and
ordered him to pay Mukhamedzhanov 100,000 tenge ($750) in
moral damages. Tokhtasynov said publicly that the
videotape with the profanity had been altered and that he
had not insulted the plaintiff.


7. (U) A November 7 Khabar report of a Tuyakbay meeting
with voters in Almaty illustrates how coverage was
distorted to discredit the candidate with television
viewers. The first segment showed one person asleep and
other people looking bored. In the next segment, a crowd
of participants and journalists were shown trying to enter
a movie theater, but guards blocked the door and said they
were carrying out orders from campaign organizers. Next a
woman was shown confronting Tuyakbay: "You held a high
position of authority and didn't manage to accomplish
anything. Does this mean only the president can get
something done? Does this mean that anybody you appoint
will compete with you for power? Won't this lead to
instability in Kazakhstan? We have peace now, and it means
a lot." Khabar showed part of Tuyakbay's answer: "It
doesn't mean instability for the people, but for those in
positions of authority. We don't need that kind of
stability." An emboff attended the meeting and said
Tuyakbay's next statement was omitted: "We still remember
the 1930s, and we have no desire to return to those days."
FJK representatives claim that a group of people came to
Tuyakbay's November 7 meeting, pretended to sleep, then
left after the Khabar crew had filmed them sleeping. As
for the guards shown blocking the entry of voters and
journalists, Svoboda Slova (Freedom of Speech)
correspondent Saya Issa told emboff they were not
Tuyakbay's security guards, whom he knew after traveling
with the campaign for the previous 10 days.

. . . While Nazarbayev "Builds the Future"
--------------


8. (U) Khabar, Kazakhstan 1, and centrist, independently
owned Channel 31 reported in detail November 7 for several
minutes on the president's visits in Almaty to the
Institute of Seismology and a subway site under
construction. At the Seismology Institute, the president
said he wanted to understand how earthquake stations were
equipped to determine what must be done in the future to
reinforce buildings and help authorities respond to
emergency situations. At the subway site, the president
talked about his plans to ease traffic congestion in Almaty
by spending 30 billion tenge (about $224 million) to
complete seven subway stations over the next three years.

More Opposition Newspapers Confiscated
--------------


9. (SBU) The opposition website www.kub.kz reported that on
October 26, a cordon of police surrounded the home of FJK
activist Garifula Gumirov. The police confiscated 12,000
copies of the opposition papers Pravda Kazakhstana, Svoboda
Slova, Ak-Zhol, and Epokha, and left, according to the


website. In another incident, Almaty's municipal
procurator released a statement about the confiscation of
Zhuma Times issue #44 on November 3 because it contained
"false information defaming the honor and dignity of a
presidential candidate in order to influence the election."
An embassy source said a total of 100,000 copies were
seized. The procurator warned that law enforcement bodies
would in the future employ all measures allowed under the
law to prevent similar distribution of false information,
including halting publication and prosecuting those
responsible. Galina Dyrdina, editor-in-chief of the banned
opposition newspaper Respublika, described another case for
Helsinki Commission Chief of Staff Sean Woo in a meeting
arranged by the embassy press office November 18. She said
Tuyakbay's campaign headquarters paid to ship 20,000
opposition newspapers to Uralsk via rail November 13. When
the train arrived, a supervisor ordered freight handlers to
destroy all the newspapers. When FJK members later
questioned the supervisor about directing his employees to
destroy the papers, he denied having told them to do so.

Opposition Media Fight Back
--------------


10. (U) On October 27, the opposition newspaper Soz-
Respublika issued a front page statement that it would not
participate in the electoral campaigns on behalf of any
candidates. "We doubt that this election will be fair,
free, or just. The authorities that destroy the opposition
press, harass members of opposition parties, send crowds of
police against unarmed people, and imprison boys and girls
who dare to announce their disagreement with state politics
will never conduct fair elections!" On November 15, a
group of 54 Kazakhstani opposition journalists and free
speech advocates issued a public appeal to the European
Parliament asking for its support given "the disastrous
situation facing the independent press on the eve of the
presidential elections." The appeal cites the illegal
confiscation of newspapers, the closure of newspapers
without trial, readers of opposition newspapers being
harassed by law enforcement organs, refusal by the
information ministry to register new independent or
opposition media, government regulation of Internet domain
names with the intent to prevent independent media from
publishing online, and the draft media law that will make
registration of new media more difficult.

Mixed Reaction to Presidential Debate
--------------


11. (U) On November 17, Yerasyl Abylkasymov, Alikhan
Baymenov, Mels Yeleusizov and Zharmakhan Tuyakbay
participated in a live hour-long debate televised on
Khabar. Central Elections Commission Chairman Onalsyn
Zhumabekov said government funds would cover the cost of
air time. Tuyakbay's headquarters stated publicly that the
event was a good opportunity for the candidates to talk
about their programs. In contrast, the Ak Zhol-affiliated
newspaper Zhas Alash listed several criticisms of the
debate in a November 19 article. The paper noted there was
no advance publicity, so most people did not know about it;
the time slot of 6 p.m. was calculated to coincide with the
evening commuter rush hour, when most people would be en
route home from their jobs; the electricity went out in
different regions of Almaty; the debate lasted only one
hour, instead of the hour and a half that had been
previously announced. At the meeting with Woo independent
opposition journalist Sergey Duvanov also raised the issue
of the timing of the debate and his suspicions about the
power outage, which also occurred in Karaganda at the same
time.


12. (SBU) Regarding such charges, the 6 p.m. timeslot was
arguably inconvenient for commuters, but proving the
electricity was sabotaged is more problematic. A power
failure also occurred in February during the president's
annual address; unreliable electricity affects those in
power and political aspirants with equal opportunity. As
for reducing the amount of time for the debate,
Zhumabekov's explanation was plausible: the CEC
anticipated enough time for five candidates to debate and
Nazarbayev's absence meant less time was needed. In


Kazakhstan's evolving political process, inconvenience and
conspiracy converge when the president's loyalists in the
media intervene to skew the reporting. Yet the government
is taking steps to democratize and regularize the campaign
by monitoring media coverage to ensure equitable treatment
of all candidates (see reftels) and by buying airtime for a
televised debate on the most popular Kazakhstani TV
channel.


13. Dushanbe minimize considered.

Ordway