Since June 9, protests have been in progress in Kazakhstan. A day earlier, during the inauguration of the newly elected pesident Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, the Almaty police arrested at least a hundred people.
On June 9-10, thousands of people took to the streets in Nur-Sultan, Almaty and Shimkent. The police used tear gas referring to the fact that the protesters had allegedly injured three officers. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan claims that only ‘participants of anti-social movements’ were detained, and the officers did not resort to special means.
The detainees were protesting against Nazarbayev’s hand-picked successor Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev being elected president. 70,76% of voters cast their ballots for him, the country’s Central Election Commission reports.
Human rights activists and international observers, including the OSCE, have recorded numerous violations during the election campaign. In total , the country’s courts delivered sentences to 957 persons for administrative offences. 670 of them will have to spend up to 15 days in jail; 115 have been fined.
Belsat.eu has picked out a number of videos showing what was going on in the streets of Kazakhstani cities on June, 12:
After three decades in power, Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned on March, 19 and appointed his close associate Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan, Acting President. Later, he proposed to nominate Tokayev for presidency.
Interestingly, Dariga Nazarbayeva, the retired leader’s daughter and ex-Head of the parliamentary committee on international relations, defense and security, was elected Chairperson of the Senate, the upper house of the Kazakh parliament, in March. Placing Nazarbayeva’s name in nomination has turned to be one of the first decisions taken by Acting President Tokayev after his inauguration.
