Kazakh vote did not meet OSCE standards -observers

ALMATY, Aug 19 (Reuters) Kazakhstan's parliamentary election failed to meet international standards due to a lack of transparency during the vote count and a high threshold for entering parliament, international observers said today.

But the monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also said yesterday's vote, which handed every available seat in parliament to President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party, was a step forward.

''Notwithstanding the concerns contained in the report, I believe that these elections continue to move Kazakhstan forward in its evolution towards a democratic country,'' Senator Consiglio Di Nino, co-ordinator of the OSCE monitors, said in a statement.

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