On December 10, 2020, a meeting of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held

On December 10 this year at 16.00, a meeting of Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held where representatives of political parties, General Prosecutor's Office, Ministry of Information and Social Development, as well as Ministry of Health took part with territorial election commissions in videoconferencing mode and media representatives - online.

Three issues were discussed at the meeting:

1. On procedure for conducting pre-election campaigning at regular elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021;

2. On establishment of locations for placement of campaign printed materials at regular elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021;

3. On accreditation of observers of an international organization for regular elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of Parliament and maslikhats of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021.

Anastassiya Schegortsova, member of the Central Election Commission, made a report on the first issue of the agenda.

She reported that according to the calendar of events for election of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, elected by party lists, the election campaign will begin on December 10 at 18.00 and will last until 00.00 on January 9, 2021.

Election campaigning is an activity designed to induce voters to vote for or against a particular political party. State guarantees citizens and public associations the right to unimpeded pre-election campaigning for or against one or another political party.

Pre-election campaigning, distribution of any campaigning election materials is not allowed to: 1) state bodies, local self-government bodies, as well as their officials in the line of duty; 2) servicemen of Armed Forces, other troops and military formations, employees of national security agencies, law enforcement agencies and judges; 3) members of election commissions; 4) religious associations; 5) foreigners, stateless persons, foreign legal entities (including foreign media) and international organizations.

Election campaigning is carried out: 1) through mass media; 2) by holding public pre-election events, as well as personal meetings of candidates and their proxies with voters; 3) by issuing and distributing printed, audiovisual and other campaign materials.

Campaigning through media State guarantees equal conditions of access to the mass media for conducting pre-election campaigning.

Election campaigning in media shall be recognized as activity of producing (broadcasting) media materials that contain: 1) calls to vote for (or against) political parties; 2) preference in relation to any political party; 3) description of possible consequences of the election or non-election of political parties; 4) clearly prevailing information about any political parties in combination with positive or negative comments.

In order to place campaign materials media shall publish and submit information on amount of payment, conditions and procedure for providing air and print space to the CEC. At present, the CEC has received 216 information messages from the media, all messages are available on the CEC website.

Publication of campaign materials in the republican and regional media that have not submitted their price proposals is prohibited. Violation of this provision in accordance with clause 5 of Art. 112 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan entails an administrative fine in the amount of 30 to 50 MCI.

Editors of media that published and submitted the above mentioned information to the CEC on a contractual basis shall provide airtime, print space to political parties that have nominated party lists of candidates for deputies of the Mazhilis. Basis for provision of printed space or broadcast on a contractual basis shall be a copy of the decision of the Central Election Commission on registration of a party list and a written statement signed by an authorized person addressed to the head of the mass media broadcast. Terms of agreement shall not create advantages for any political party and the consent to the allocation of airtime and print space given to one political party is a consent to the allocation of airtime and print space to other parties. The circulation of periodicals related to the election campaign must be the same for all parties during the pre-election campaign. Interruption and comment on speeches of political parties on television and radio immediately after speech as well as in print media in the same issue is forbidden.

From the start of the pre-election campaign all information promoting goals and objectives of the political party that has nominated the party list with exception of news and analytical programs shall be paid from the electoral fund of the party.

Political parties shall ensure that they comply with requirements of Constitution and national election legislation.

In accordance with sub-clause 4) of Article 1 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Mass Media", Internet resources are also considered as mass media, i.e. they are subject to all provisions of law on elections and therefore, monitoring of placement of campaign materials on Internet resources will be carried out by analogy with traditional media.

Appropriate measures can be taken to Internet resources in case of violation of procedure for conducting election campaigns, for example, on the “day of silence”.

Campaigning by holding public election events as well as personal meetings of candidates and their proxies with voters.

It is allowed to organize and conduct rallies, processions, demonstrations and other pre-election events by political parties and candidates during campaign period. In accordance with legislation such events must be coordinated with local executive bodies 10 days before their holding.

Election commissions together with local executive bodies and local self-government bodies draw up a schedule of meetings of candidates with voters in a designated room and publish it in the media.

It is important to remember that free distribution of printed including illustrative materials as well as badges, flags, flags specially made for the election campaign are allowed during public pre-election events.

Everything else, provision of goods, any services, securities to voters free of charge or on preferential terms as well as holding of lotteries, charitable actions, payment of money or promise of providing such shall be recognized as improper election campaigning, which is prohibited.

Campaigning shall be held by issuing and distributing printed, audiovisual and other campaign materials.

All campaign printed materials shall contain the following information: about organization that issued these materials, place of their printing, circulation, persons who made the order, as well as from what funds were paid.

It is prohibited to produce printed campaign materials outside the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, distribute anonymous campaign materials.

Local executive bodies, together with the relevant election commissions, determine places for placing campaign printed materials for all candidates and equip them with stands, billboards, and pedestals. Campaign printed materials shall be posted on conditions that ensure equal rights for all political parties. Political parties shall have the right to post campaign printed materials in other places with the permission of the owner of the corresponding object.

It is prohibited to post campaign materials on monuments, obelisks, buildings and structures of historical, cultural or architectural value, as well as in the voting room.

All individuals and legal entities providing services to a political party related to the conduct of election campaigning shall have written consent from them to accept the service. Persons who do not have written consent shall be liable in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Public opinion polls.

In accordance with the requirements of the norms of the Constitutional Act "On Elections", legal entities registered in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and having at least five years of experience in conducting public opinion polls, having previously notified the CEC in writing with copies of the relevant documents shall have the right to conduct public opinion poll. The notification sent to the CEC shall contain information about the specialists taking part in the survey and having experience in this area, about the regions in which public opinion polls will be conducted, about the methods of analysis used.

When publishing the results of public opinion polls related to elections, the media shall indicate the legal entity that conducted the survey, persons who ordered the survey and paid for it, time of the survey, method of collecting information, the exact wording of the question, the number of respondents and the error rate of the survey results.

Prohibition on publishing results of public opinion polls, forecasts of election results, other studies related to elections, voting in support of candidates or political parties within five days prior to election day and on election day now extends to the Internet.

Persons conducting surveys shall not use Internet resources, social networks and instant messengers to publish results during the prohibited period. This rule is provided in order to prevent manipulation of public opinion, in particular, by creating and distributing fake messages on the Internet.

To date, 7 legal entities that have submitted notifications to the Central Election Commission on the conduct of a public opinion poll have documents in accordance with the norms established by electoral legislation.

On election day and the day preceding it, any election campaign shall be prohibited. For violation of the terms, procedure and conditions of the pre-election campaign, legal liability is provided, and in relation to political parties up to the cancellation of the registration of party lists.

As part of the report, A. Schegortsova said that political parties that have nominated party lists of candidates for deputies of the Mazhilis shall have the right to participate in pre-election debates on television, organized by the Central Election Commission.

In this regard, draft Resolution "On holding pre-election television debates at the regular elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021," was submitted for consideration by the CEC members, in which the date of the pre-election debates was set to December 30, 2020.

Based on the results of the consideration of the draft, the resolution to hold pre-election debates was unanimously adopted by the CEC members.

Also, within the framework of the issue on election campaigning, Vice Minister of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kemelbek Oishybayev made a report “On monitoring information space during the election campaign at the elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021. Election Campaigning in Social Networks ”.

Deputy Prosecutor General Bulat Dembayev reported: "On supervision of the precise and uniform application of election legislation during the election campaign at the elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021."

In the videoconferencing mode, Vice Minister of Health - Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Kiyassov spoke. He informed that the Ministry of Health has developed a Resolution "On approval of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 during the election campaign at the elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of Parliament and maslikhats of the Republic of Kazakhstan." The resolution was approved by members of the Central Election Commission.

As part of the second issue, representatives of akimats of the regions, cities of Nur-Sultan, Almaty and Shymkent reported on the work carried out to establish the locations for the placement of campaign materials for the regular elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for January 10, 2021.

A. Schegortsova, member of the Central Election Commission, spoke on the third issue of the meeting.

She said that since the opening of the Institute for International Election Observation on October 22, 2020, the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan has accredited 62 observers from 3 international organizations and 5 foreign states. As applications for accreditation are received, the data on observers is periodically updated.

As of December 10, 2020, 24 long-term observers from the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission have been submitted for accreditation to the Central Election Commission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In this regard, members of the Central Election Commission adopted a resolution on accreditation of observers of the international organization.

After the meeting, a briefing for the media took place, at which members of the CEC answered questions from the media.

Press service

Central Election Commission

of the Republic of Kazakhstan

tel. 75-21-03, 75-23-69

a.khusainova@election.gov.kz

v.zheksembekova@election.gov.kz

https://t.me/electionelection