Kazakhstan votes in poll seen as democratic test

ASTANA/ALMATY, Aug 18 (Reuters) Kazakhstan voted today in a parliamentary election that was certain to return a big majority for President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party and is seen as a test of the Central Asian state's democracy.

The vast oil-producing country has never held a vote internationally recognised as free and fair but Nazarbayev, in power since Soviet times in 1989, wants recognition in the West as the leader of a state built on more than petrodollars.

Key to Saturday's vote will be whether the opposition All-National Social Democratic Party (ANDSP) wins any seats and the verdict of election monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Preliminary results were due tomorrow at 1030 IST, the Central Election Commission said as polls closed. The OSCE will make a statement on its poll monitoring at 1630 IST.

Nazarbayev wants Kazakhstan to chair the OSCE, a 56-member democracy, rights and security body, in 2009 but has faced opposition due to his poor record on democracy.

He called the poll two years early after enacting constitutional changes that hand the lower house, the Mazhilis, more powers such as naming the prime minister but also removed any limit on how many terms he can serve as president.

Speaking alongside visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao, he said the vote bolstered stability and, in a veiled reference to foreign critics, said reform had to be home-grown.

''This is a purely Kazakh way and it does not copy anyone's recommendations,'' he said.

By 1730 IST voter turnout was 58 per cent, officials said. It was lowest in Almaty, the biggest city and a redoubt for the opposition, where just 19.8 per cent voted.

The opposition said turnout was lowest where it had deployed observers with digital cameras and highest in rural areas, such as the region around Almaty where it stood at 79 per cent.

TURNOUT DOUBTS ''The turnout is clearly exaggerated,'' Bolat Abilov, one of the leaders of the ANDSP told reporters in Almaty. ''It's summer, this is a snap election and some regions claim a 70 per cent turnout, that truly surprises us.'' The party said it had gathered photographic evidence of a range of violations including multiple voting and campaign literature for Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party in polling stations, where the leader's portrait also frequently hung.

Nur Otan is widely expected to win a landslide. It dominated the previous chamber but that parliament also included nominally independent MPs, now banned.

Western diplomats and analysts estimate the ANDSP could command 15 to 20 per cent in a free vote -- far less than opposition movements in countries like Ukraine and Georgia where rigged elections led to protests that ousted presidents.

One voter at a deserted polling station in Almaty gave his name as Iskander and said he cast his ballot for the ANSDP.

''I'm just voting against the powers that be, they should be able to be changed,'' he said.

But Gulzhan, an economist who works for the state railway company, said she voted for Nur Otan. ''The others are just demagogues. I can't see their achievements, like building schools,'' she said.

At a military barracks for the Republican Guard that protects the president in Astana, voting was much brisker.

''Certainly I voted for Nur Otan,'' said Kanat Omarbekov, a serviceman in dress uniform. ''I serve my state. It's my responsibility to vote for it.'' REUTERS SYU PM2110