Kazakh leader set to maintain grip on parliament

ALMATY, Aug 19 (Reuters) Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party is expected to be confirmed today as the overwhelming victor in a parliamentary election and there are doubts whether the main opposition party will win a seat. Nazarbayev, in power since Soviet times in 1989, has overseen rapid economic growth in the oil-rich Central Asian state but his thumping electoral victories have never been judged free and fair by international poll monitors.

Yesterday's poll for the lower house of parliament, the Mazhilis, set the 67-year-old leader's wish to keep a tight grip on the vast country against his desire to be viewed in the West as a reforming international statesman.

Election officials said they would publish preliminary results at 1030 IST, to be followed within hours by initial findings from voting monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

One exit poll released with official blessing forecast the opposition All-National Social Democratic Party (ANSDP) would narrowly fail to pass a 7 per cent barrier to enter parliament.

The poll gave 77.3 per cent to Nazarbayev's Nur Otan.

The ANSDP said it had gathered photographic evidence of a range of violations including multiple voting and campaign literature for Nur Otan in polling stations.

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

In its verdict on the conduct of the election, the OSCE will have to weigh wild swings in official data for turnout. Although the nationwide figure was 65 per cent, that included a turnout of just 23 per cent in Almaty, the biggest city, against 90 percent in the rural region surrounding the city.

The opposition said turnout was lowest where it had deployed observers with digital cameras. Kazakh election officials said they had tried to create a level playing field.

''The Central Election Commission did everything to organise a transparent election,'' Marat Sarsembayev, an official at the commission said. ''We want to become chairman of the OSCE, we want to look good in front of the international community.'' Reuters SZ VP0430