Trunov, I.L., Borisov, I.B. Presidential elections in Kazakhstan - legal problems of observation by international missions.

Abstract: Before the Presidential elections in Kazakhstan there was a lot of forecasts on negative electoral attitude, coming chaos and instability. The authors of this article were members of the official international observers’ mission at the elections of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, they met with the representatives of the Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan and City Election Commission of Almaty, held roundtables and press-conferences, visited a number of electoral areas. In this article they give their impressions of the elections. In particular, the authors note that the differences in the evaluation of the elections by various groups of observers have to do with differences between the Eastern and the Western “schools” of electoral observers, with the tendency of the latter school to use “double standards”…