Rukhaniyat Party is no longer registered for the upcoming parliamentary elections

On 28 December, at 5:17pm we learnt that the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan canceled the registration of a party list of Rukhaniyat party by the Order № 77/143. 

Earlier, on 22 December in Almaty, the chairman of the Rukhaniyat party, Serikzhan Mambetalin met with representatives of the OSCE. The Party’s members told the observers about the main directions of its election manifesto and about the way their headquarters in the regions operated. The Rukhaniyat party nominated 27 candidates for parliamentary elections. «We don’t have any problems accessing the mass media. We are also planning to launch our newspaper so we can inform people about our promotion campaign.»

A week later, “based on the findings that have become available to the prosecutor general’s office after it conducted an inspection following the application of Ms Zhaganova and in accordance with Article 89.6.4 of the Law on Elections, the Central Election Commission cancels the registration of the Rukhaniyat Party list dated December 14, 2011”. 

The resolution was approved by all CEC members. 

In accordance with the resolution the option “Rukhaniyat Party” will be deleted from the ballots that will be used during the elections to Majilis scheduled for January 15, 2012.

Mr Meldeshov said that the 8th extraordinary convention of the Rukhaniyat Party was held in conflict with the Rukhaniyat Party Charter.
“According to the minutes the 8th extraordinary convention of the Rukhaniyat Party was attended by 203 delegates from all regions and Rukhaniyat branch offices. However, the inspection conducted by prosecutors revealed that the party had not held conferences in most of the regions and, thus, had not sent their delegates to the convention. Moreover, the party leadership invited Rukhaniyat members from some of the regions, though these members were not duly authorized to participate in the convention,” Mr Meldeshov said.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Rukhaniyat Party did not hold conferences in 12 of the regions and in the other two regions such conferences were organized in conflict with the existing regulations.

The Rukhaniyat Party violated the existing Law on Elections when nominating its candidates for the Majilis, Me Meldeshev summed up.

As reported, Altynshash Zhaganova, the founder and former leader of the Rukhaniyat Party, accused Serikzhan Mambetalin, her successor, of fraud and demanded that Rukhaniyat should not be allowed to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary election. “I was forced to ask the Prosecutor-General to remove Rukhaniyat from the election as the party’s pre-election convention was illegitimate. (…) The party’s constitution and seal are stored with me. Mambetalin knows it perfectly well, but says he has lost the things. He is lying,” Zhaganova said in an interview to the state Khabar TV channel on December 26.

Serikzhan Mambetalin dismissed the accusations as a “hoax”.