STATEMENT ON VIOLATIONS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

20 January 2024.

Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Mr Nurlan Mazhitovich Abdirov

4, Beibitshilik Street, Astana, 010000, Republic of Kazakhstan

Copy: to
Mr Berik Nogaevich Asylov, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Kazakhstan

010000, Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, 14 Mangilik El Ave

From: cit­i­zen of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Serik Rakhymbaevich Medetbekov

STATEMENT ON VIOLATIONS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN DATED 28 SEPTEMBER 1995 “ON ELECTIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN” THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE PREPARATION AND HOLDING OF EXTRAORDINARY ELECTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN ON 3 APRIL 2011 AND EXTRAORDINARY ELECTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN ON 26 APRIL 2015.

In December 2023, for­mer President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev pub­lished a book of mem­oirs “My Life”, in which he admit­ted that since the ear­ly 2000s he has been in two mar­riages simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, has two wives: Sara Nazarbayeva and Asel Isabayeva/Kurmanbayeva, chil­dren from each of them: daugh­ters Dariga, Dinara and Aliya, sons Tauman and Baiken.

Nursultan Nazarbayev has per­son­al­ly con­firmed to the media and indi­vid­ual for­eign lead­ers that this infor­ma­tion is true and that he is con­scious­ly bring­ing it to the atten­tion of the peo­ple of Kazakhstan and the inter­na­tion­al community.

Avoiding moral assess­ments of the pub­lished infor­ma­tion, one can­not but con­sid­er them as a per­son­al admis­sion by Nursultan Nazarbayev of his repeat­ed gross vio­la­tion of of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan of 28 September 1995 “On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan” , which was expressed in pro­vid­ing false infor­ma­tion about his mar­i­tal sta­tus, the facts of a long-term extra­mar­i­tal affair and sub­se­quent bigamy, and the pres­ence of chil­dren born out of wedlock.

There is no doubt that infor­ma­tion about this should have dra­mat­i­cal­ly changed the results of the elec­tion, because it would have alien­at­ed women vot­ers of all age groups, who are out­raged by the facts of sex­u­al rela­tions between pow­er­ful old­er men and young and defence­less girls.

The age dif­fer­ence between Nursultan Nazarbayev and Aselya Isabayeva/Kurmanbayeva is more than 40 years. By the time she entered into a rela­tion­ship with N. Nazarbayev, she was social­ly unpro­tect­ed in any way, hav­ing no com­plet­ed edu­ca­tion, no pro­fes­sion and no income of her own. Her guardian/father, being a civ­il ser­vant, was depen­dent on President Nazarbayev.

Male vot­ers, in their turn, could not but con­demn the use by can­di­date Nazarbayev of his offi­cial posi­tion to con­ceal infor­ma­tion about his fam­i­ly mem­bers, places of res­i­dence of his wives and minor chil­dren, wives’ occu­pa­tions, as well as their incomes and assets. Since, in these new­ly dis­cov­ered cir­cum­stances, there is an actu­al vio­la­tion by the can­di­date Nazarbayev N.A. of the require­ments of Article 59 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

In par­tic­u­lar, the refusal to pro­vide the Central Election Commission with infor­ma­tion on the income of Nazarbayev’s sec­ond wife is a clear vio­la­tion of the Election Law, as para­graph 2 of Article 59 clear­ly requires:

“The can­di­date and his (her) spouse shall, pri­or to reg­is­tra­tion, sub­mit to the state rev­enue author­i­ties at the place of res­i­dence dec­la­ra­tions of assets and lia­bil­i­ties as of the first day of the month of the begin­ning of the nom­i­na­tion peri­od estab­lished in accor­dance with this Constitutional Law, in the man­ner and form estab­lished by the autho­rised state body of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is in charge of ensur­ing the receipt of tax­es and oth­er com­pul­so­ry pay­ments to the budget.

Reliability of infor­ma­tion on assets and lia­bil­i­ties declared by a can­di­date and his/her spouse shall be ver­i­fied by the state rev­enue author­i­ties with­in fif­teen days from the date of reg­is­tra­tion of a candidate”.

It is known from the inter­na­tion­al Pandora Papers inves­ti­ga­tion con­duct­ed by the Centre for Corruption and Organised Crime Research (OCCRP)¹ that A. Isabayeva/Kurmanbayeva had tens of mil­lions of dol­lars worth of assets pro­vid­ed to her by cor­rupt indi­vid­u­als from President Nazarbayev’s entourage dur­ing the two elec­tion cam­paigns in question.

Kazakhstani jour­nal­ists also found that Isabayeva/Kurmanbayeva had received the use and dis­pos­al of the­atre build­ings in Almaty and Astana at the expense of the bud­get and the Nazarbayev Foundation.

The total­i­ty of these cir­cum­stances makes it pos­si­ble to accuse N. Nazarbayev of delib­er­ate­ly con­ceal­ing manda­to­ry infor­ma­tion about him­self and his fam­i­ly when run­ning for pres­i­dent of Kazakhstan in 2011 and 2016. Due to this, he twice ille­gal­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the elec­tions and sub­se­quent­ly, hav­ing passed the elec­toral pro­ce­dures, ille­gal­ly exer­cised the func­tions of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, at least in the peri­od 2011–2019.

Declaring these crimes against the Constitution and the state, I demand from the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to can­cel the acts of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the reg­is­tra­tion of N. Nazarbayev as a can­di­date for President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the ear­ly pres­i­den­tial elec­tions in 2011 and 2015.

Accordingly, I demand that Decrees No. 45/76 of 5 April 2011 “On Establishment and Publication of the Results of the Extraordinary Election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan held on 3 April 2011” and No. 32/61 of 28 April 2015 “On Establishment and Publication of the Results of the Extraordinary Election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan held on 26 April 2015” be annulled as ineligible.

As an exhib­it, edi­tions of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s book “My Life. From Dependence to Freedom”, “Meninң omir­im. Bodandyktan — bostandykққa”:

• Nazarbayev, N. A. My life. From depen­dence to free­dom : mem­oirs / N. A. Nazarbayev. — Astana : Publisher: Foliant, 2023. — 708 с. — ISBN 978–601-271–803‑4:

Publisher: N. Nazarbayev Foundation; ISBN 978–601-271–803‑4.

• Nazarbayev N.: Menің өmіrіm. Bodandyktan — bostandykққa; ISBN 978–601-271–821‑8.
  

Serik Medetbekov,
Civil Society Coalition of Kazakhstan “Dongelek Ystel”.

1 https://www.occrp.org/ru/the-pandora-papers/secretive-offshore-maneuvers-enriched-unofficial-third-wife-of-kazakhstani-leader-nursultan-nazarbayev