About field workshop-meetings in the Ulytau and Karaganda regions

On March 9-10, Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission Konstantin Petrov and CEC member Sabila Mustafina paid an inspection visit to the territorial election commissions of the Karaganda and Ulytau regions.

During the trip, members of the CEC held field workshop-meetings on the preparation and holding of early elections of members of the Mazhilis of the Parliament and maslikhats of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for March 19, 2023.

Representatives of local executive bodies, employees of regional prosecutors’ offices, members of territorial election commissions, representatives of campaign headquarters of candidates, international observers and media representatives took part in the events.

The main objectives of the inspection trip are to explain the novelties of the electoral legislation, provide methodological assistance to members of election commissions, and listen to the reports of the regions on the work done in preparation for the upcoming elections.

Yerlan Galiyev, head of the administration of the akim of the Karaganda region, informed about the work carried out in the region to organise the elections. In particular, he noted that the number of voters in the region is 761,471 people. The work of 654 polling stations has been organised, which are equipped including taking into account the needs of persons with disabilities: specially equipped corners have been opened where audio versions of the procedure for filling out a ballot are provided, audio information on elections, additional lighting and optical correction tools (magnifier).

For voters moving in wheelchairs, the convenience of booths for secret voting and movement, as well as the availability of familiarisation with information materials, will be provided. Audio amplifiers and headphones will be installed for people with speech or hearing impairments.

During the workshop-meeting, first deputy prosecutor of the Karaganda region Vitaly Shaber, also reported on the work done to ensure the highest supervision over the observance of the rule of law at all stages of the election campaign.

Abzal Zhailybayev, head of the akim’s administration, reported on the ongoing work in the Ulytau region. He informed that 70 district election commissions are currently working in the region. In total, there are 134 polling stations in the region, 123 are equipped with unhindered access for people with special needs, the remaining 11 polling stations are equipped with temporary ramps.

During the election campaign, information material in the form of an audio recording and stencils in Braille are being provided at polling stations for persons with visual impairments.

All polling stations are fully equipped.

The total number of voters in the region is 141,285 people. Call centres have been set up in all cities and districts to check voter lists and polling stations.

On the websites of akimats of cities and districts, there are services for finding oneself in the voting lists, Telegram_bot, which allows the voter to find out the address of the polling station and get a list of registered candidates from a particular constituency.

In the second part of the workshop-meetings for members of the territorial election commissions of the Karaganda and Ulytau regions, trainings were organised in the form of the Voting Day business game. The purpose of the training is the qualitative assimilation by the members of the election commissions of the entire voting procedure, the acquisition of practical skills in working with the list of citizens eligible to participate in elections, with absentee ballots, with oral and written appeals of citizens, and communicating with representatives of public associations.

At the end of the workshop-meeting, the members of the Central Election Commission answered all questions of interest to the members of the territorial election commissions.