A meeting of the Central Election Commission was held on issues of pre-election campaigning, electoral education and appeals received by the CEC
On November 18 this year, a meeting of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held under the chairmanship of Nurlan Abdirov, at which issues of pre-election campaigning, electoral education and appeals received by the CEC during the election campaign were considered.
The meeting was participated by chairmen and members of the territorial election commissions of the regions, cities of Astana, Almaty, Shymkent via videoconferencing, while representatives of authorised state bodies, the media, as well as the chairmen of the CEC of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, international observers of the OSCE/ODIHR, SCO and CIS Missions participated in person.
Vice Minister of Information and Social Development Daniyar Kadirov spoke on the first issue of the agenda. He said that during the period of pre-election campaign from October 21 to November 18, monitoring covered 578 republican and regional media. Based on the monitoring results for the specified period, more than 16,000 materials about the activities of presidential candidates and their election headquarters were posted in the media, including 10,288 on television, 2,228 in print media, and 3,551 on Internet resources. Upon the results of the monitoring, the principle of equal coverage in the media is observed. Equal coverage of the candidates’ activities in the media was also monitored by international observers, in particular, by the OSCE/ODIHR mission.
The ministry, together with the CEC, also carried out information work aimed at explaining the electoral rights of citizens and increasing interest in voting. Together with the CEC, motivational video and audio messages were produced.
As part of the work to ensure compliance with the requirements of the electoral legislation, since the beginning of the electoral campaign, the Ministry has identified 75 facts of violation of the norms of the Constitutional Act “On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan.” The main part of the revealed signs of violations was related to the distribution of materials with signs of campaigning without specifying the source of funding, the publication of materials with signs of campaigning by the media without providing the CEC with information on the amount of payment, conditions and procedure for providing airtime and print space within the established time limits, as well as with violation of the procedure conducting public opinion polls. Identified materials with signs of violations were sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office for consideration and a final decision and prosecution.
Deputy Prosecutor General Zhandos Umiraliyev made a report on responsibility for violating the electoral legislation on the day of voting, and also called on all participants of the electoral process to strictly observe the norms of the electoral legislation
Sabila Mustafina, member of the CEC of the Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke on the second issue of the meeting. She informed that on September 22 this year, by CEC resolution, the Plan for organising training for members of election commissions and other participants of the electoral process was approved. As part of the implementation of the Plan, training was organised for members of election commissions at all levels in various forms.
The educational and methodological set of the 2019 election campaign was used as a methodological basis for training. The teaching materials were supplemented with new tests and practical cases collected from the regions. The methodological basis of the electoral training system for members of election commissions was the cascade method of training of the organisers of the election process at all levels of the electoral system, the essence of which is training from the Central Election Commission – at the republican level, to the precinct election commission.
Distance learning was organised for all members of territorial and precinct election commissions through the Internet resource of the Central Election Commission. All 1,673 TEC members and 69,284 PEC members completed distance learning, including online testing.
The Central Election Commission held 12 workshop-meetings for members of election commissions. Moreover, members of territorial election commissions take part in CEC meetings online on an ongoing basis.
On November 15, an online workshop was organised for 68 precinct election commissions formed at the representative offices of the Republic of Kazakhstan abroad on the organisation of the voting day.
From October 28 to November 16, the Chairman, members and staff of the Central Election Commission held 21 retreat workshops in the regions. Similar events are organised by territorial election commissions according to the cascade method for lower local commissions. Thus, 9345 field training workshop-meetings and trainings were held for 70,000 members of TECs and PECs. At the branches of the Academy of Public Administration at the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 1,760 regional workshops were held for more than 31,000 members of TECs and PECs.
In order to improve the electoral culture of young people, CEC Chairman Nurlan Abdirov held 2 meetings with the Club of Young Voters established at the Central Election Commission.
The CEC, together with Ministry of Information and Social Development, held 3 training workshops in offline and online formats for representatives of the media, political parties, other public associations and non-profit organisations. At the regional level, territorial election commissions held 416 workshops for 9295 participants in the electoral process. These are workshops for political parties, campaign headquarters, proxies of candidates, NGOs, media, law enforcement agencies, people with disabilities and youth.
The Centre for Electoral Education became a new platform for electoral education of various target groups. The Electoral Education Centre held 7 training workshops for various categories of participants in the electoral process in combined offline and online formats.
As part of the educational and methodological support, the Central Election Commission has elaborated 8 methodological manuals for election commissions, presidential candidates and their proxies, international, national observers and media representatives. A training video about the work of PEC members on Election Day was filmed and sent to the regions.
Thus, as part of improving the electoral culture in the republic, 11,592 training events were organised for 71,000 members of election commissions of all levels and other 11,313 participants of the electoral process.
CEC member Assylbek Smagulov spoke on the third issue on the agenda. He said that the CEC received 203 appeals from September 22 to November 18 – 45 from legal entities; 120 – from individuals; 38 – from the media.
According to the nature of the appeals, the following were distributed: 111 – clarification of the legislation and answers to inquiries on the organisation and conduct of elections; 23 – media information on the amount of payment, conditions and procedure for providing airtime on TV channels, schedules for placing campaign materials during the period of election campaigning; 15 – from individuals to include them at the polling stations at their actual place of residence, on other issues within the competence of the TEC; 29 – on the withdrawal of personal data from the voter lists participating in the early elections of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 25 – on other issues not directly related to the elections.
After the meeting, a briefing for the media was held.