Federation of Young European Greens

The Green Party of Kazakhstan (Rukhaniyat) has been disqualified from the country's parliamentary elections, which are taking place today.

Pavel Koktyshev, Vice-president of the party said, "The reason for the disqualification of our party from the election is purely political. It is motivated by our strong convictions on issues such as opposition to political integration with Russia, and our involvement in the recent acts of civil disobedience in Zhanaozen."

Recently, the party has gained confidence and used its voice to raise criticisms of the current regime on important issues such as the plan to build a nuclear power plant in the Nazarbayev area. This attempt to propose an alternative view, and a genuine opposition, has not gone down well with the government. Other parties have not been so forthright in their dissent, as evidenced by the fact that the Greens are the only party disqualified from the forthcoming elections.

Despite the party's efforts, the Central election committee ruled that the party had not met the necessary conditions to participate in the election. However, according to Pavel Koktyshev this decision is not legal, since the decision was finalised without a court decision, as required by law. "Prosecutors have refused to listen to our arguments in our defence, or to examine the supporting documents" added Koktyshev, "All this was done in an underhand and excessively rapid way."

The Federation of Young European Greens wishes to show its solidarity and support to green party members and activists in Kazakhstan, where freedoms remain limited in many areas. We join the calls for international attention to be drawn to this case, so that both the Kazakh government and judicial system will be compelled to treat all political contenders fairly and openly and to conduct genuine free elections, both today and in the future.

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