Kazakhstan takes step towards early election

By Raushan Nurshayeva

ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan took a step towards early parliamentary elections on Tuesday to enforce a set of reforms criticized by the opposition as undemocratic.

Moves towards a new poll followed a package of reforms proposed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev as part of his plan to show the West his commitment to democracy.

Although it gives additional powers to parliament, the package enraged the opposition as it also allows Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, to stay in office for life and makes it more difficult for small parties to get into parliament.

At Tuesday's session, parliament, which needs to be re-elected for parliamentary reforms to come into force, asked Nazarbayev to dissolve it and set a date for a new ballot.

"We appeal to you... to take an uneasy but historically important decision for Kazakhstan's destiny -- to dissolve the (lower house of parliament) and call an early parliamentary election," it said in an appeal.

Regular polls had not been due until 2009 in a nation yet to hold elections judged free and fair by foreign monitors.

"We believe the current (lower chamber) should not block the reforms and wait until 2009 to end its work," parliament, which contains only one opposition politician," the deputies said.

Parliament has already rubber-stamped most of the reform package.

It now needs to enforce remaining reforms such as raising the number of MPs and allowing parties to nominate representatives to the central election commission, an amendment proposed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Other clauses ban parties from forming electoral blocs and require all seats be filled from party lists -- a move the opposition said would secure the overwhelming victory of the pro-Nazarbayev Nur-Otan party.

Oraz Zhandosov, co-head of the opposition Real Ak Zhol party, said his supporters would still take part in the election in union with another major opposition force, the Social Democratic party.

"This is all obviously part of a big plan that dates back months ago," he said. "One underlying reason could be that this gives Nazarbayev five consecutive years of no elections at all."

Without a reliable successor in sight, Nazarbayev, whose term expires in 2012, has not said whether he would run for the presidency again.

The United States has praised parliamentary and judicial reforms as positive but has not directly commented on the clause allowing Nazarbayev to stay in office indefinitely. Nazarbayev said last week he agreed to the president-for-life clause as he thought voters supported the idea.

(Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina in Almaty)