Zhanaozen has been on the main pages of sites and newspapers for a month. First, a large-scale riot in a small town with a population of 120 thousand people astonished the world, and then a state of emergency was declared here. The curfew will be in Zhanaozen until the end of January and it almost caused the cancellation of the main event in the life of any country, the elections. The Constitutional Council decided to cancel the elections here on January 6. Nevertheless the President supported the civil rights of the residents. On January 10, Nursultan Nazarbayev vetoed this decision. And three days ago the town electoral commission of Zhanaozen received new regulation from the Central Electoral Commission, which said to conduct the election!

Our city, our people should take part in the voting. I am very grateful to the president for taking this decision. Our future depends on him. The elections are very important for me.”
“What is now being done is the right decision. We should have equal right to vote. Otherwise, would not have voted. I think that’s certainly right.”
“We are people so we have to elect MPs. It was a right decision to hold the elections in Zhanaozen. We are fully supportive of this. We want everything to be alright and most importantly, we want peace.”
“These elections are especially important for Zhanaozen residents. Some candidates stand for creating an alternative industry or light industry and livestock farming. The region is large. There are a lot of things you can do. And hopefully these manifestoes will fulfill their purpose and be implemented.”

Election preparations began here as soon as it became known that voting in Kazakhstan would start on January 15. Voting booths were set up, ballot boxes were prepared and the voting lists were elaborated. A total of slightly more than 50 thousand people have voting rights in Zhanaozen.

Baktygali Bazylov, Chairman, Zhanaozen Election Commission
Elections are being held in Zhanaozen in a very active way. For example, I can say for the first three hours 15% of voters have voted. And at 4pm 21 thousand people voted - that is, half of the voting population. It is very important too that the mood of the people is very good.

City is patrolled by police in emergency mode. On average, the order in one area is guarded by up to 10 police officers - they provide security, both within the site and in its surroundings. In total there are 28 Zhanaozen polling stations. Virtually in all of them there are observers from various organizations.

The Independent Observer and the Member of the UK House of Lords John Anderson, Viscount Waverley said that he has come to Zhanaozen in order to observe the situation and the electoral process. He is happy that everything is happening in the normal mode. Democratization is a gradual process but it is noteworthy that Kazakhstan reached great heights for these 20 years. The observation mission noted that they participated in elections to the parliament, which will be multi-party. It is another achievement of the country.
 
Richard Weitz, Independent Observer (USA)
“We haven’t found any infringements. We have got good impression of the elections, since all administrative rules and procedures are transparent. I received answers to all questions. This region does not have any problems.”