Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and Global

Current gDP (uSD): 
$224.4 billion (2013 est.).
gDP growth:
6.0% (World Bank 2013 est.)
unemployment rate: 
5.2% (ILO 2013 est.)[6] 
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.8% (World Bank 2013
est.)
Categorized by the World Bank as an Upper Middle In-
come country

---

KAZAKHSTAN
I
POLITICAL DEvELOPMENT
In August 1995 the governing structure of Kazakhstan
was converted from a parliamentary democracy into a
presidential republic, and slowly, but gradually President
Nazarbayev started to recruit family members for key po-
sitions in the national government as well as in the busi-
ness sector. Nepotism has become a staple in Kazakh
politics. Nazarbayev responded with threats, imprison-
ment and isolation towards opponents, but even his
own daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva and her husband,
criticized President Nazarbayev. Media outlets that did
not support the government were closed and political
opposition and political critics were and are silenced.
Media repression continues. Due to international pres-
sures regarding Kazakhstan’s crackdown on the media,
Nazarbayev who can be best described as a “soft author-
itarian” president whom loosened media restrictions to
make Kazakhstan and himself appear more democratic.
Kazakhstan says that it is devoted to progressing and im-
plementing democratic principles. However democratic
reforms such as elections have fallen short of meeting
international standards. A key component to the foun-
dation of democracy is competitive, free, and transpar-
ent elections. Kazakhstan has held elections, but they do
not meet international standards and always favor
Nazarbayev and Nur Otan his party. The most recent
election of President Nazarbayev was in late April 2015
where there was no opposition. He won 95% of the vote
and the elections were deemed undemocratic and failed
to meet international standards. 
14

---

Furthermore, the parliamentary elections of
2005 highlighted the lack of transparency. In
the 2005 elections, Nazarbayev won a seven-
year term; Nazarbayev won 91% of the vote.
Two other candidates, Zamarkhan Tayukbay
(from the party For a Just Kazakhstan) and
Alikhan Baymenov (from the party Ak Zhol)
were able to compete, giving the illusion of po-
litical party pluralism and further solidifying
Nazarbayev’s hold on the opposition and on
the government.[7] The 2011 Kazakhstan Par-
liamentary elections were considered a sham
by the international community. In 2011, parlia-
ment held a national referendum extending
Nazarbayev’s presidency without elections until
2020.The elections were an attempt to estab-
lish/appoint Nazarbayev as “President for Life”
of Kazakhstan. It was passed unanimously by
the Upper and Lower houses of the Kazakh par-
liament and later was rejected by the Constitu-
tional Court facing international pressures.
Instead, the Kazakh parliament sneakily “held
early presidential elections three months later,
and Nazarbayev won an additional four-year
term with over 95 percent of the vote.”[8]
Nazarbayev won 95.5% of the vote which is
high despite his popularity. The Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
had over 400 election monitors in the country
before the election.[9] Exit polls conducted by
“Kazakhstan’s Association of Sociologists and
Politologists” gave Mr. Nazarbayev 94.82% of
the vote, based on an exit poll of 1.2% of those 
who voted, while the Institute of Democracy
gave him 95.1%, based on a sample of 50,000
voters.”[10] Nine million people in Kazakhstan
are eligible to vote, out of those nine million,
90% casts their ballots which points to voter
fraud because of such a high voter turnout
rate.[11]
Political competition is weak and the Nur-Otan