Kazakh Opposition Asks Court To Annul Election

Opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbai showed the country is heading toward totalitarianism (RFE/RL) 18 December 2005 -- Kazakh opposition parties have asked the country's Supreme Court to cancel the results of the 4 December election that returned President Nursultan Nazarbaev to power.

International observers have described those polls as flawed.

In a statement today, the opposition movement For a Just Kazakhstan said it had asked the country's highest court to declare the election illegal and invalid.

The official results showed 91 percent of voters favored another seven-year term for Nazarbaev, while the leading opposition candidate, former speaker of parliament Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, got 6.6 percent of the vote.

Tuyakbai called the result an obvious sign that the oil-rich Central Asian state is "turning from an authoritarian regime into a totalitarian one."

Tuyakbai's supporters have filed 1,204 complaints about alleged electoral breaches with various courts.

(Reuters)