Parliamentary Elections, 18 August 2007

Following an invitation from the Government of Kazakhstan, ODIHR established an election observation mission on 13 July.

Headed by Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj of Slovakia, the mission consisted of 22 experts and 36 long-term observers who were deployed to the 14 regional capitals and Astana and Almaty.

Election-day observation was a joint undertaking of ODIHR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Together, 449 short-term observers from 45 OSCE participating States were deployed.

According to the mission's final report: "The 18 August 2007 Majilis election resulted from the early dissolution of the parliament elected in 2004 and followed the adoption of significant amendments to the Constitution and Election Law, including a new proportional representation system. However, some of the new amendments are contrary to the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, marking a step backward in a number of provisions of the election legislation. Despite some progress in the process during the pre-election period and in certain aspects of voting, the election did not meet a number of OSCE commitments, in particular with regard to elements of the legal framework and to the vote count and tabulation."