US agrees with OSCE Conclusions on Majilis Election

    The United States is ready to continue cooperating with Kazakhstan after the Sunday parliamentary election in the Central Asian republic; however, calls on the Kazakh authorities to ensure political pluralism, U.S. Department of State deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.
    “We hope the government of Kazakhstan follows through on its stated goal of strengthening the overall conditions necessary for genuine political pluralism,” Toner said in a statement on results of the Kazakh parliamentary election.
    “We welcome the monitoring of the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe delegations and acknowledge their preliminary assessment that a variety of issues caused this election to fall short of the international standards to which Kazakhstan has committed itself,” he said.
    The U.S. “looks forward to engaging with the new multi-party Parliament as we continue our cooperation with the government and people of Kazakhstan to implement our broad-ranging strategic partnership,” he said.
    “We recognize the government’s stated ambition to improve the political climate and to conduct more inclusive and transparent elections in line with both its international commitments and the aspirations of the Kazakhstani people,” Toner said.
    It was reported earlier that Miklos Haraszti, the head of the OSCE ODIHR observer mission, said the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan were fully controlled by the government, the Kyiv Post said.