Kazakhstan presidential election set for December.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's constitutional court has set a presidential election for the first Sunday of this December, ruling in favor of the opposition. The government had argued that the election should not take place until next December. The current president/dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been in power for 15 years and has announced that he will be a candidate. Kazakhstan has never had an election which was deemed to be "free and fair" by international observers, and I'm sure that Mr. Nazarbyev will take sufficient (though probably not legal) action to ensure that he is "re-elected".

I get excited whenever a dictator in the Former Soviet Union tries to get himself re-elected, because the last 3 such "elections" have culminated in pro-democracy revolutions. Kazakhstan does have a relatively health opposition. However, the standad of living in Kazakhstan has been improving, which may make the population less likely to participate in a popular uprising.

Revolution in Kazakhstan? Only time will tell.

Tags: Kazakhstan, Revolutions, Nazarbayev, Nursultan Nazarbayev