ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Police in Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis, Almaty, have detained opposition activists who deliberate to carry a rally to problem subsequent month’s early presidential election.
Bibigul Imanghalieva, a member of the unregistered Algha, Qazaqstan (Kazakhstan, Ahead) occasion, instructed RFE/RL by telephone that she and several other of her colleagues have been detained for a number of hours early within the morning in several components of the town earlier than they may maintain the demonstration, which was to fall on October 25, Republic Day, which commemorates Kazakhstan’s declaration of state sovereignty in 1990.
Based on Imanghalieva, main activists, Aset Abishev, Aidar Syzdyqov, and Qanatkhan Amrenov, have been amongst these detained. She added that she and different activists have been launched three hours later.
Imanghalieva says she and different members of the unregistered occasion had formally filed a request with the Almaty metropolis administration final week asking for permission to carry a rally on October 25.
Different activists instructed RFE/RL that the chairwoman of an unbiased group of election observers, Arailym Nazarova, was additionally detained by police. Her cell phone has been switched off for the reason that morning of October 25.
Within the capital, Astana, police cordoned off a sq. close to Zhengis (Victory) Avenue the place activists had deliberate to assemble, not permitting anybody to enter the positioning. No less than two activists have been detained there.
Opposition activist Amangeldy Zhakhin mentioned on Fb on October 25 that police didn’t permit him to go away the village of Shortandy on October 25 as they tried to forestall his journey to Astana, the capital, the place he deliberate to arrange a rally to query the election, scheduled for November 20, at which incumbent President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev will face off in opposition to 5 comparatively unknown candidates.
Activists within the cities of Aqsai, Pavlodar, and Oskemen additionally mentioned they have been blocked from travelling to Astana to participate in a rally.
Toqaev, who has tried to place himself as a reformer, known as the early presidential election on September 1 whereas additionally proposing to alter the presidential time period to seven years from 5 years. Below the brand new system, future presidents will probably be barred from in search of multiple time period.
Critics say Toqaev’s initiatives have been primarily beauty and don’t change the character of the autocratic system in a rustic that has been plagued for years by rampant corruption and nepotism.
Toqaev’s predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev, who had run the tightly managed former Soviet republic with an iron fist for nearly three a long time, selected Toqaev as his successor when he stepped down in 2019.
Although he was not president, Nazarbaev retained sweeping powers as the top of the Safety Council. He additionally loved substantial powers by holding the title of “elbasy” or chief of the nation.
Many voters, nonetheless, remained upset by the oppression felt throughout Nazarbaev’s reign.
These emotions got here to a head in January when unprecedented anti-government nationwide protests began over a gas value hike, after which exploded into countrywide lethal unrest over perceived corruption underneath the Nazarbaev regime and the cronyism that allowed his household and shut associates to complement themselves whereas strange residents didn’t share within the oil-rich Central Asian nation’s wealth.
Toqaev subsequently stripped Nazarbaev of his Safety Council position, taking it over himself. Since then, a number of of Nazarbaev’s kin and allies have been pushed out of their positions or resigned. Some have been arrested on corruption costs.
In June, a Toqaev-initiated referendum eliminated Nazarbaev’s title from the structure and annulled his standing as “elbasy.”
