Hundreds of Kazakh opposition supporters protested today in Almaty against President Nursultan Nazarbaev and the results of recent elections.

The unsanctioned meeting took place peacefully on the fringes of Republic Square. Police did not intervene.

But the All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP) said in a statement after the meeting that several party members, including co-leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbay, were taken to a police station.

Nazarbaev’s Nur Otan party won almost 81 percent of the vote in the January 15 polls, which international observers said failed to meet democratic standards.

The election controversy came just one month after 16 people were killed in clashes between striking oil workers and police in the Caspian Sea city of Zhanaozen.

It was Kazakhstan’s worst bloodshed since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Compiled from agency reports

Copyright © 2012, RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Source Article from http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakhstan_opposition_protest/24466039.html

Web Statistics