|
|
| Chapter 5 :: Pre¬election campaign |
 |
Article 27. Pre-election campaign
1. The pre-election campaign - the activity with the aim of inducing voters to take part in voting for or against this or that candidate, a political party.
The foreigners, persons without citizenship, foreign legal entities and international organizations are prohibited to conduct the activities hindering and (or) facilitating nomination and election of candidates, political parties, that have put forward their party lists, and to achieve certain results at elections.
2. The pre-election campaign begins since the moment of cessation of the candidates’ registration and ends at zero o’clock by the local time the day proceeding the day of elections. At conducting of a repeated voting the pre-election campaign begins from the day of assignment of a day for repeated voting and ends at zero o’clock by the local time of the day proceeding the day of elections.
3. The pre-election campaign is implemented:
1) Through mass media;
2) By conducting public pre-election actions (pre-election meetings and meetings with voters (electors), public pre-election debates and discussions, meetings, processions, demonstrations and other pre-election actions in the order established by the legislation and not forbidden by the present Constitutional Act), personal meetings of candidates and their proxies with voters (electors);
3) Through issue and (or) distribution of printed, audiovisual and other propaganda materials.
4. It is forbidden to conduct a pre-election campaign, to distribute any propaganda pre-election materials:
1) To the state bodies, bodies of local governments and also their officials on duty;
2) To the servicemen of the armed forces, other troops and military formations, personnel of the bodies of the national security, law-enforcement bodies and judges;
3) To members of election commissions;
4) To religious associations.
5. The candidates-officials of the state bodies are forbidden to use advantages of their official or service position.
Under use of an advantage of an official or service position, the present Constitutional Act understands the following:
1) Attraction of persons who are under subordination or other career dependence to conduct a pre-election campaign, except for cases when the indicated persons conduct propaganda as proxies of the candidate;
2) Use of the premises occupied by the state bodies for accomplishment of the activity promoting election of a candidate, a political party which has put forward the party list if other candidates, political parties are not guaranteed the use of the indicated premises on the same conditions.
Observance of the limitations stipulated by the present item should not interfere with execution by the officials of their official duties.
6. Journalists, officials of the editorial staff of mass media, registered by candidates or their proxies, have no right to participate in coverage of elections through mass media.
7. Mass media are obliged to exercise unbiased interpretation of the election campaign of candidates, political parties; to abstain from publications of propaganda materials and other information, obviously discrediting honor, dignity and business reputation of the candidate or the political party; to grant for the indicated persons a possibility for a free of charge publication of denial in protection of honor, dignity and business reputation in the nearest publication of the printing, on the same page, in the same volume and in the same font, or broadcasting on TV or radio at the same time within twenty four hours after reception of the appeal.
Mass media shall immediately grant a possibility to the corresponding election commissions to publish information about the course of the election campaign and announcements stipulated by the present Constitutional Act.
8. Officials of mass media do not bear responsibility for statements of candidates and political parties during their election campaigns, except for cases of publication of the materials indicated in item 1 of article 29 of the present Constitutional Act.
9. Conducting of the pre-election campaign accompanied by granting to voters of goods, services, securities free of charge or on favorable terms and also conducting of lotteries, charitable actions, payment of money or promise to provide the latter shall be considered as inadequate pre-election campaign, except for free distribution of the printed and illustrative materials, badges, flags and the tags specially produced for the election campaign. It is forbidden to conduct inadequate pre-election campaigns.
The candidates, political parties which have put forward their party lists and also any natural and legal persons acting on behalf of them or in their support are forbidden to conduct charitable actions except for organization of entertainment and sports events since the moment of announcement of elections.
Infringement by the candidate or the political party which has put forward the party list, and also their proxies of the rules established by the present item shall entail cancellation of the decision on registration of the candidate and the party list.
10. It is forbidden to conduct a pre-election campaign using the image of any person without his/her written consent and in case of his/her death - without permission of his/her heirs.
Article 28. The right to conduct pre-election campaigns
1. The state guarantees to its citizens and public associations the right to conduct unimpeded pre-election campaigns for or against this or that candidate or a political party in compliance with the present Constitutional Act and other legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Citizens and the public associations which do not create according to the present Constitutional Act any election funds have the right to conduct a pre-election campaign which does not need any financing.
2. Since the moment the term of registration is over, which is established according to the present Constitutional Act, and till the end of the propaganda campaign, the candidates and the political parties that have put forward their party lists have the right for propaganda and propagation of their electoral program in press and other mass media.
The candidates and political parties which have put forward their party lists shall be guaranteed equal access conditions to mass media to conduct their pre-election campaigns.
3. The state guarantees an equal allocation of funds to the candidates to come out with their programs in mass media. Each candidate shall be granted the funds for a fifteen minutes speech on TV, ten-minutes broadcasting by the radio and also for publication of two articles in the print in the volume that does not exceed 0.1 of a printed sheet.
The political parties that have put forward their party lists have the right to participate in political debates on TV, organized by the Central Election Commission within the time limit fixed by the Central Election Commission.
Mass media grants time for broadcasting and the printed page to the registered candidates and political parties that have put forward their party lists on a contractual basis. The terms and conditions of the contract for provision of time for broadcasting and the printed pages in mass media to the candidates and political parties that have put forward the party lists should not create advantages in favor of a certain candidate and a political party. The data about the size of payment, conditions and order of granting of on-air broadcasting time and the printed area should be declared and published by the corresponding organization of the TV-radio broadcasting, the editorial staff of the periodic printing not later than on the tenth day after an official publication of the decision on calling an election. The named information needs to be presented to the Central and oblast (regional) election commissions during Elections of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to other territorial and also district election commissions during election of deputies of the Parliament, Maslikhats and members of other local self-administration bodies.
The consent for allocation of time for broadcasting and a printed area given by mass media to one of the candidates or a political party which has put forward its party list shall be considered as consent to allocate time for on-air broadcasting and a printed area to other candidates or political parties that have put forward their party lists.
The sequence of appearance of candidates and the political parties which have put forward their party lists in mass media shall be established in the course of reception of written applications or through casting lots if applications were received at one and the same time.
It is forbidden to interrupt and make comments in respect to speeches of the candidates on TV and by radio right after the speech has been made and also in the same issue of printing.
4. By application of election commissions, the local self-administration bodies and governments shall grant on a contract basis to candidates premises for meetings with voters. The election commissions shall make a schedule of meetings of candidates with voters in the allocated premises and publish it in mass media. The conditions for granting such premises should be uniform for all candidates.
5. For publication of posters, leaflets, slogans and other propaganda printed materials the corresponding election commissions shall allocate to the candidates an equal sum of money, except for the candidates who stand for elections under party lists. All propaganda printed materials shall contain data about the organization that published the given materials, place of their printing and circulation, about the persons who have placed the order, sources of funding to cover such expenses. It is prohibited to produce propaganda printed materials outside the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan and to distribute anonymous propaganda materials.
6. The local executive bodies jointly with the corresponding election commissions determine places for keeping propaganda printed materials for all candidates and shall equip them with stands, boards and curbstones. The propaganda printed materials are displayed on conditions that ensure equal rights for all candidates.
The candidates have the right to hang out their propaganda printed materials in other places with the consent of the owner of the corresponding premises or a facility.
It is forbidden to hang out any propaganda materials on monuments, obelisks, buildings and the structures if the named have a historical, cultural or architectural value, and also in the premises for voting.
Information about candidates shall be placed in the premises of election commissions and premises for voting in a uniform format with a photo of the candidate and a standard form of the data established by the Central Election Commission.
Information on political parties, which have nominated party lists, shall be posted in the premises of the election commission and voting premises and shall comply with a standard form of data established by the Central Election Commission
7. The candidates to the President, deputies of the Parliament and Maslikhat have the right to cover all the expenses related to making statements in mass media, conducting of public pre-election actions, issuing of additional propaganda materials, and also to cover transport, travel and living expenses at the cost of their own election funds. It is forbidden to attract for these purposes money from other sources, to accept any goods, works and services of natural and legal persons that are used by the candidate during the election campaign that have not been covered from the election funds of the candidate. The candidate is forbidden to render any assistance to the indicated natural and legal persons for provision of the above named services.
The natural and legal persons rendering services to the candidate and the political party to conduct the pre-election campaign should obtain written consent of the candidates to adopt such services. The persons who do not have the aforementioned written consent shall bear responsibility according to the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
8. The periodic printing facilities of the Central and local executive bodies are obliged to publish announcements of the election commissions, the data about the candidates participating in elections in the order and volume defined by the Central election commission.
9. At publication of the results of the public-opinion polls related to elections, the mass media are obliged to name the organization that conducted such a poll, the persons who ordered the poll and paid for it, time of conducting of the poll, method of information collection, accurate wording of questions, the number of the interrogated persons and the factor of an error in the results of interrogation.
It is not allowed to publish the results of the polls, forecasts of the election returns and other surveys linked to elections in the mass media within five days before the ballot day and on the ballot day.
It is forbidden to conduct the poll on the day of elections in the premises or in the voting place.
Article 29. The pre-election program of the candidate, the political party
The candidate to the President, candidate in deputies of the Parliament and Maslikhat and in members of other local self-administration bodies, the political party which has put forward the party list shall come out with their electoral program on future activities. The pre-electoral program should not profess the idea of a violent change of the constitutional building, infringement of integrity of the Republic, undermining of safety of the state, unleashing of social, racial, national, religious, class and patrimonial clashes, the cult of cruelty and violence, and also creation of the militarized formations not stipulated by the legislation.
In case of infringement of the above-mentioned requirements the corresponding election commission has the right to refuse the candidate in registration and the political party in registration of the party list. In case of putting forward by the candidate or the political party of such an electoral program after registration - to cancel the decision on registration of the candidate or the party list.
Article 30. (Excluded by the Constitutional Act of the Republic of Kazakhstan as of April 14, 2004 ¹ 545-II).
Article 31. Proxies
1. Candidates, the political parties which have put forward their party lists have the right to have proxies to help them in conducting election campaigns, conduct pre-election campaigns and to represent the interests of candidates and political parties.
2. Candidates and the political parties which have put forward the party lists define their proxies at their own discretion in the number that shall not exceed three persons per each polling place of the corresponding constituency and shall notify about them for registration of the latter in the corresponding election commission.
The persons offered by the candidate and the political party as proxies shall submit to the corresponding election commission an application expressing their willingness to act as a proxy.
The candidate for the deputy of the Senate has the right to have one proxy in each rayon, city and district in the city.
3. The election commission after registration of proxies issues to them corresponding certificates.
4. The proxy should be a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, cannot be a deputy of Maslikhat at elections of the deputy for the Senate, neither a member of any election commission or a person holding a post of a political civil officer.
5. Authorized representatives shall have rights and responsibilities of observers of political parties, other public associations and non-government organizations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and shall act within the limits of authority granted to them in writing by the candidate or the political party, which has nominated the party list.
6. Proxies lose their status after completion of an election campaign by a personal initiative or by decision of the candidate and the political party which has put forward the party list and also in cases of cancellation of registration of the candidate or the party list, breach hereof Constitutional Act.
Article 32. Termination of the pre-election campaign
1. It is forbidden to conduct any pre-election campaigns on the day of elections and the day preceding it.
2. The printed propaganda materials which earlier have been hung out outside the premises of the election commissions and premises for voting can be preserved in their place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
