Snap presidential elections are going to be held in Kazakhstan on Sunday, and that nation's embassy in New Delhi, has made all arrangements for the same, and said it expects the polls to go along predictable lines.
Incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is the candidate of the ruling Nur Otan Party, will have an electoral face-off with two other candidates -Abelgazi Kusainov, the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, and Turgun Syzdykov, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan.
The casting of votes will take place between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
In an interview to ANI, Kazakhstan's Ambassador to India Bulat Sarsenbayev said all Kazakh citizens living in Delhi or coming to India as tourists would be participating in the election process at the embassy.
He was candid and frank in admitting that President Nazarbayev has been a guiding force for the people of his country since December 16, 1991, when he became the head of state, as also before that date as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan when the Soviet Union was in existence.
"Till now, 24 years have passed, and these 24 years have been a success story for Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is developing very quickly, and we are among the quickest developing countries in the world," the Kazakh envoy said.
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"The people in Kazakhstan are very pragmatic, and they are watching the results. I think the elections are predictable more or less, though we have three candidates. The results are more or less predictable, I am not prejudiced, but still, people in majority trust their president and trust the government led by him, and that is why he has the support as he had 24 years ago," he added.
"We have come to a stage when we know already that he is the right person to lead the country," Ambassador Sarsenbayev said.
The envoy further stated that the main reason for holding the presidential polls ahead of schedule was because the government did not want two elections to happen in the same year.
"Next year, according our Constitution, we were scheduled to conduct the elections of the lower chamber of the parliament and the presidential elections. It was thought that having two elections in a year, could create administrative issues; this is one thing; and the other thing was economic - the world is facing a difficult time. The prices of oil have gone down, and stability in some areas, and also economic stability in the Euro-Asian Zone, this makes everybody a bit afraid, people were afraid that this 24 years success story might end," he said.
"I think these presidential elections will give assurance to the new president to lead the country in this period of time, not to lose this one year. Because if elections happen next year, it will start some electoral procedures and so on and the uncertainty on who will lead the country. This country will go through a problem. I think these presidential elections one year ahead of the schedule will make our people be able to be more sure about the future of our country," Ambassador Sarsenbayev said.
Referring to the president's address to youth earlier this month, the envoy said, "He talked to the youth and told them they are the future of Kazakhstan and they have safeguard their society, culture and traditions."
"During the Soviet times, everybody was waiting for the decision, everybody was waiting that something will be given to them-free apartment, free education, free everything, and this, makes for a dependent mentality, not an active mentality. Our president addressed the youth and said they should be active in society, get rid of such dependency, infantilism," he said.
"Now, life is changing, different rules and approaches; that's why, the behavior should be different. We have many ambitions, because without ambitions, no future development. If you don't put some ambitious targets on yourself, you will not move. We are bidding now for the non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations from 2017-18, we are bidding for the Winter Olympic Games, to be held in Almaty, We will be hosting this Expo 2017, and many other things we have set for ourselves. We have to move to achieve something," he said.
With regard to Kazakhstan being an energy driven economy, he said that the focus area post these elections would be on innovation.
"We want to compete and make products which will be competitive at the international level. In this regard, we regard India as our possible partner to implement this industrialization program," Ambassador Sarsenbayev said.(ANI)
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