This article is written with information provided by Svetlana Beissova from "Taraz Initiative Centre," a NGO in Kazakhstan/ a member of APWLD Women's Participation in Political Processes (WPPP) Task Force. Svetlana has practical information on her country in regards to women's participation in political process. She has been working for more then six years in women's organisations and participated in the process of creating the second alternative report for Kazakhstan on the realisation of UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. She has managed three projects on Women's Participation in Political Processes in Kazakhstan. One of the results from these projects was the participation of seven women from her organisation in the recent election processes at the local authority level as candidates.

Political System and Elections in Kazakhstan In December 2005 Kazakhstan had Presidential elections which had no women candidates. Kazakhstan's President is elected by the people and serves for a seven-year term. Incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, sought and won another seven-year term against four other candidates. Opposition candidates were allowed some access to the mass media, but this was still restricted. According to western election observers, opposition candidates suffered considerable harassment. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) criticised the elections, calling them unfair.

The legislature, known as the Parliament (Parlamenti) has two chambers. The Assembly (Mazhilis) has 77 seats, elected for a four year term, 67 in single seat constituencies and 10 by proportional representation. The Senate has 47 members, 40 of whom are elected to six-year terms in double-seat constituencies by the local assemblies, half renewed every two years, and 7 presidential appointees. In addition, ex-presidents are ex-officio senators for life.

Kazakhstan is a one party dominant state in the way that only supporters of the President can share power. Opposition political parties are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power due to corruption, resulting in voting irregularities as seen in the 2004 elections.

Last year the Parliament adopted some changes in the electoral laws. These changes will limit freedom of assembly. The law prohibits from having meetings and demonstrations regarding the electoral process after the election till the announcement of the results of the elections.

Representation: a Numbers Game
In 2005, there were nine political parties, only one of which is headed by a woman. This has increased to 11 this year. However, none of these parties promotes gender issues, and no one is ready to change the existing political structures from a feminist perspective in order to promote women's right to participate in political processes at local and national levels.

51.9 percent of the Kazakhstan population are women. However, due to existing stereotypes in the society, women have less rights and opportunities than men in real life. Women's representation in the parliament has been reduced from 11.2 percent in 1999 to 9.5 percent in 2004 (year of the last election). 19 percent of the local and city council officials are women. There are no female Mayors in the cities and regions. Customs and traditions are obstacles for women to occupy high level positions and to be active in political life though there are no obstacles in the national laws.

Women have very few positions in the higher levels of the state bodies. The National Commission of Family Affairs and Gender Policy is headed by a woman but the Commission has no operating budget. Women have some positions in the mid to lower levels but with low salary. According to the official statistics, women's salary is only 61.8 percent to that of men's. This is typical gender hierarchy in Kazakhstan!

Changing Scenario
To change the situation in the country, on November 29, 2005, "The strategy of gender equality in Kazakhstan from 2006 to 2016" was signed. The strategy provides some solutions to reach equal rights and opportunities between men and women. The strategy said it is necessary to adopt two laws, which women's NGOs have been lobbying for the past seven years:

1. law on equal rights and opportunities for men and women; and
2. law on domestic violence.

It also includes the adoption of the temporary special measures and quotas. According to the strategy, the national plan of actions has been worked out. The national plan includes a network of schools for women leaders. These schools have been organised on the basis of women's organisations which train leaders.

In November 2006, the Lower House of Parliament debated on laws on equal rights and opportunities. And women's NGOs have also started working on gender budgeting issues.

Stalling the Good Work- Some Constraints Women's NGOs have no funds to support the national plan on gender equality. Government used to give money to women's groups to work on social issues, but the legislation does not provide to give financial support for non-commercial organisations. Some regulation has been created but NGOs which are normally non-commercial have lots of difficulties with state taxes on funds for implementation of their projects because the law provides funding only to governmental organisations and business structures.