At least, that’s how the authorities try to present this campaign in public opinion - both local and international. Arthur yesterday wrote about the Kazakh embassy’s press release, in which the president, who also heads the ruling party “Nur-Otan”, is called “all-nation leader”.

Here is another example of the government’s campaigning abroad. Marston Nicholson Mayor, a French PR group, apparently, is once again recruited by the government to promote positive image of the elections abroad. Their release called “Democracy on the Move in Kazakhstan” sheds light on the parliamentary elections, recent constitutional amendments and also a section “About Kazakhstan”, which glorifies economic growth, driven by revenues from sale of mineral resources.

However, the light it sheds obviously serves some political objectives, like, for example, pre-legitimize landslide victory of the ruling party:

“Consensus - even amongst the opposition - is that the ruling Nur-Otan party will win the most seats”, reads the report. “I am convinced that Nur-Ortan, which has proved its efficiency, potential and strength, will succeed in obtaining the credit of the people so we can proceed along the chosen path,” president Nazarbayev is quoted. “Nur-Otan will obtain 65-70% of votes”, Daniyar Ashimbayev, a political expert close to the regime, is also quoted.

Two years ago, during the presidential campaign (see, for example, here, here and here), Marston Nicholson provided series of PR materials concerning the electoral race. The firm says it is employed by Kazakhstan for public relations and frequently emails English-language statements on behalf of the government.

Early parliamentary election in Kazakhstan will take place on August 18. Although the Central Election Commission was quick enough to ensure inclusiveness of registration process and gave approval for the opposition’s party list, social-democrats already cry foul in the campaign.

First of all, All-National Social-Democratic party (recently merged with “True Ak Zhol” Party), which represents opposition on the elections, they are not happy with the election commissions as such. There are no opposition members in the CEC; in lower level bodies across the country opposition representatives make up only appx. 1% of election commission members.

Besides, all state TV channels used various pretexts to reject broadcasting of video ads devoted to the merge of ANSDP and “True Ak Zhol”. The agitation campaign has started on July 18 and will last till August 16, and currently the oppositionists also complain that most broadcast media put numerous obstacles to their pre-election ads. At the same time, most of the airtime is, surely, dedicated to the ruling “Nur Otan” party, chaired by president Nursultan Nazarbayev. (more…)

Adil Nurmakov is a 28-year old political scientist and a journalist from Almaty, who started as a blogger in 2004. He writes his own Livejournal adam_kesher and is a regular author on neweurasia. Recently, Adil wrote an open letter to the mayor of Almaty about the situation with the increasing amount of cars in Almaty and appealing to open the car parks. Adil collected 40 signatures from bloggers, sent the letter signed “the blogosphere” to the mayor’s office with the link to the survey in his blog. He is still waiting for the reaction.

Q: What is a blog and citizens’ journalism for you?
Blog is a hobby that became a functional tool; a simple personal page, now it’s the means to express my opinion and find the like-minded people. I personally think that the citizens’ journalism is one of the ways to start the discussion on certain things, to express your opinion, to make the blogosphere interested and provoke it to discuss the issues of social importance.

Q: What topics are you interested it, how do you choose what to write about?
I am interested in topics, which, as I think, can make a precedent and show a tendency for overall development of the society. It includes politics, democracy, society, business. At the same time I like organizing “flash-mobs” sometimes and post fun surveys, humor and the news of show-business. I have one simple principle – I write about things that I am interested in today.

Q: What does the audience mean for you, do you have any goals when you write about politics and social issues, are you trying to attract people’s attention, appeal to them, propagate something or create a feeling of a community?
To be honest with you, I don’t see blog as a propaganda tool – not because it cannot be one at all, but because it cannot be one in Kazakhstan. There are other channels for that, the more effective ones, and blog is just one pleasant but not irreplaceable addition to them. So far.

Q: I remember that Irina Yasina (Open Russia) said at the blogging conference in Moscow that the protest in Russia goes online, in the digital space, because people are afraid to go protest on the streets. You did not agree with her, why?
Transferring the protest online is a big achievement of the current Kremlin regime. (more…)

Yuri Mizinov is a founder and an editor of Zonakz.net, an online newspaper, previously known as Navigator. Zonakz.net is planning to launch blogs on their site, and Yuri Mizinov agreed to comment on blogs and citizen media for neweurasia.

Q: What is a blog for you?
The definition of a blog is well-known. But for us it has additional features. Blog is the source of information that passes by the professional journalists. Also, the blogs give the readers an opportunity to speak openly about any issues, including those that are a taboo for mass media. We plan opening a blog section on Zonakz.net next week, and the blogs would be possible to open only with the editor’s permission. This would be a specific feature of our blogs. We will open blogs for famous people and those of our readers who can express themselves in a coherent way. Thus, we would like to limit the useless part of blogging (as we think) and making reading of the blogs a really interesting experience

Q: What is the state of citizen journalism in Kazakhstan?
I actually prefer the term “people’s journalism”. I think that people are ready to share the information in the Internet in Kazakhstan. There are two problems though: first, the Internet is still expensive and its penetration in Kazakhstan leaves much to be desired. The second problem is that people are afraid to write online, even anonymously. They are scared that the special services can track them down and apply violence to them. Especially after the recent announcement by the general prosecutor that the bloggers are responsible for the distribution of unchecked information of insulting character and the information, that, as the prosecutors think, incites the inter-ethnic hatred. This fear is definitely being spread by someone, but really, it is just physically impossible to control everything that is being said in the Internet. It would require half of the country sitting in front of their computers and tracking down the IP addresses, it is just not possible. (more…)