Real Elections - Chance for a Better Future
March 17, 2023
BAKHTIYAR BULEULIEV, DOCTOR OF LAW, PROFESSOR, LAWYER
The elections to the Mazhilis of the Parliament and Maslikhats complete a certain electoral cycle connected with the presidential elections and the referendum on making amendments and additions to the Constitution of the country.
I urge my compatriots to go to the polls and cast their votes for their candidates. If every voice is taken into account, if everyone votes and expresses their point of view, the results of the elections will show a precise cross-section of public demands which the government and authorities cannot ignore. This is first of all. Secondly, there will be less chance for those who want to manipulate the votes of absentee voters. Thirdly, the voting de jure and de facto confirms in practice the implementation of several norms of the Constitution on the right to elect and be elected. This means that the Basic Law is actually workable.
What constitutional norms of suffrage are we talking about in this case? First of all they are paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 3; paragraph 1 of Article 23; paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 33 of the Constitution and some other norms. For example, paragraph 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution proclaims that the people are the only source of the state power and paragraph 2 of the same norm says that the people exercises the power directly through the republican referendum and free elections, as well as delegates the exercise of its power to the state bodies...
As a whole, the forthcoming, I hope and strongly wish, active mission of my compatriots in the sense of coming and voting is undoubtedly demanded by time and will help to solve a lot of problems, be it economics or other public spheres. The issue of forming a qualitatively new composition of the Mazhilis, which would be capable of adopting timely, needed laws for the benefit of the people of Kazakhstan, is being resolved.
At the local level Maslikhat deputies, as they say, knowing the local problems, would help organize the work of regional authorities in such a way that they would be able to listen to and hear the wishes and problems of citizens in the regions. I propose to elaborate some aspects of joint work of regional parliaments (maslikhats) and deputies of Mazhilis, to make point amendments and additions to the profile law On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan. But this is another story.
If we don't go to elections we, hopelessly stuck in the past, will remain puppet pawns in the hands of others.
TUNGYSHBAY AL-TARAZI, PEOPLE'S ARTIST OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN, DOCTOR OF ARTS
My position on the election is as follows: if you're rooting for your country, you can't stay away. After all, today, by and large, the fate of our country is being decided, and in such a way that one could raise the Hamlet question ‘To be or not to be?’
I'm worried about Kazakhstan myself and I also wanted to nominate my candidate, but I made a mistake - I didn't indicate the copyright for the theater festival when I was filling out the documents. Well, I should be more attentive... Now I'm studying election programs of candidates from different parties and self-nominated. Choosing from the great multitude (self-nominated by 600 people alone) is also, it turns out, is not a very easy task. Everyone seems to want positive changes in the country, and everyone promises to do them quickly, which is both good and bad.
Good, because the country, albeit slowly, but moving forward. Bad - how not to make a mess again. The Kazakhs have a saying: "Auru batpandap kirip, mysqaldap shygady" - "The disease comes in tons and goes out in grams". Therefore, it is unlikely that everything can be solved quickly, but there will be changes. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is working hard for this (the changes in the electoral legislation), but is doing everything cautiously, in order to avoid mistakes. We have already had a lot of them.
They were especially hard on the aul. When you see in what deplorable condition it's now, you want to scream with pain.
I remember once we were on tour in Belarus. And I was jealous of them, because I saw that they not only saved the village, but made it even better. I also want to see beautiful homes in Kazakh villages, I want people to be merry and to work, and not to be shuffling about in the markets. I want cultural centers and clubs to appear, and I want us to go there on tour as we did in the old days.
I myself, like many other voters, am aul, from the countryside. As a schoolboy, I went to work in the beet fields. The money I earned there on vacation helped our family of many children more than once. That is why I now call on everyone not to look down, like Byron's Childe Harold, both at the aul and at the elections themselves, but to become a participant in the changes in the country and to come to the polling stations.
It's time to give up the pessimism that has become our long-dead, but so familiar clothing. For the previous 30 years, we ignored elections and let people think and make decisions for us, but now the principle "Whatever happens, let there be peace, we will see the rest." It is necessary to take responsibility on oneself, to look at the world with open eyes.
Source: kazpravda.kz
The elections to the Mazhilis of the Parliament and Maslikhats complete a certain electoral cycle connected with the presidential elections and the referendum on making amendments and additions to the Constitution of the country.
I urge my compatriots to go to the polls and cast their votes for their candidates. If every voice is taken into account, if everyone votes and expresses their point of view, the results of the elections will show a precise cross-section of public demands which the government and authorities cannot ignore. This is first of all. Secondly, there will be less chance for those who want to manipulate the votes of absentee voters. Thirdly, the voting de jure and de facto confirms in practice the implementation of several norms of the Constitution on the right to elect and be elected. This means that the Basic Law is actually workable.
What constitutional norms of suffrage are we talking about in this case? First of all they are paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 3; paragraph 1 of Article 23; paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 33 of the Constitution and some other norms. For example, paragraph 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution proclaims that the people are the only source of the state power and paragraph 2 of the same norm says that the people exercises the power directly through the republican referendum and free elections, as well as delegates the exercise of its power to the state bodies...
As a whole, the forthcoming, I hope and strongly wish, active mission of my compatriots in the sense of coming and voting is undoubtedly demanded by time and will help to solve a lot of problems, be it economics or other public spheres. The issue of forming a qualitatively new composition of the Mazhilis, which would be capable of adopting timely, needed laws for the benefit of the people of Kazakhstan, is being resolved.
At the local level Maslikhat deputies, as they say, knowing the local problems, would help organize the work of regional authorities in such a way that they would be able to listen to and hear the wishes and problems of citizens in the regions. I propose to elaborate some aspects of joint work of regional parliaments (maslikhats) and deputies of Mazhilis, to make point amendments and additions to the profile law On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan. But this is another story.
If we don't go to elections we, hopelessly stuck in the past, will remain puppet pawns in the hands of others.
TUNGYSHBAY AL-TARAZI, PEOPLE'S ARTIST OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN, DOCTOR OF ARTS
My position on the election is as follows: if you're rooting for your country, you can't stay away. After all, today, by and large, the fate of our country is being decided, and in such a way that one could raise the Hamlet question ‘To be or not to be?’
I'm worried about Kazakhstan myself and I also wanted to nominate my candidate, but I made a mistake - I didn't indicate the copyright for the theater festival when I was filling out the documents. Well, I should be more attentive... Now I'm studying election programs of candidates from different parties and self-nominated. Choosing from the great multitude (self-nominated by 600 people alone) is also, it turns out, is not a very easy task. Everyone seems to want positive changes in the country, and everyone promises to do them quickly, which is both good and bad.
Good, because the country, albeit slowly, but moving forward. Bad - how not to make a mess again. The Kazakhs have a saying: "Auru batpandap kirip, mysqaldap shygady" - "The disease comes in tons and goes out in grams". Therefore, it is unlikely that everything can be solved quickly, but there will be changes. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is working hard for this (the changes in the electoral legislation), but is doing everything cautiously, in order to avoid mistakes. We have already had a lot of them.
They were especially hard on the aul. When you see in what deplorable condition it's now, you want to scream with pain.
I remember once we were on tour in Belarus. And I was jealous of them, because I saw that they not only saved the village, but made it even better. I also want to see beautiful homes in Kazakh villages, I want people to be merry and to work, and not to be shuffling about in the markets. I want cultural centers and clubs to appear, and I want us to go there on tour as we did in the old days.
I myself, like many other voters, am aul, from the countryside. As a schoolboy, I went to work in the beet fields. The money I earned there on vacation helped our family of many children more than once. That is why I now call on everyone not to look down, like Byron's Childe Harold, both at the aul and at the elections themselves, but to become a participant in the changes in the country and to come to the polling stations.
It's time to give up the pessimism that has become our long-dead, but so familiar clothing. For the previous 30 years, we ignored elections and let people think and make decisions for us, but now the principle "Whatever happens, let there be peace, we will see the rest." It is necessary to take responsibility on oneself, to look at the world with open eyes.
Source: kazpravda.kz
