Elections 2023 debates: Promises and proposals of political parties to Kazakhstani people
Member of the People’s Party of Kazakhstan Askhat Assylbekov presented the party’s election platform at the debates.
With the election platform titled «For Country, for Land, Power to People», the party pursues the goal of building a fair society, where power and wealth belong to the people. The party suggests establishing a chamber of auditors and a law-drafting institution in the Majilis, the lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament. According to the party’s election platform, people should elect judges of the districts. The party demands to adopt a new tax code and a law to fight poverty. The party promises to raise the minimum salary from 70,000 to 140,000 tenge, to reduce women’s retirement age to 58, as well as to cut mortgage rates to 3%.
Executive Secretary of AMANAT Party Yelnur Beissenbayev said that the party’s election platform had been adopted together with the voters. In his words, AMANAT intends to eliminate injustice. «Oligopoly is unacceptable. Corruption must be fully eliminated,» he said.
The party, which has met with almost 1 million voters countrywide, promises to open 100 new enterprises and set a decent salary for each citizen. «Each person must be under a ward of the state,» he noted. According to him, social support of the citizens will be increased 2.5fold. All children in the country will be covered with pre-school education. Dilapidated and three-shift schools will be liquidated. 1.5 million young people will be employed. Students’ monthly allowances will be raised twofold,» the program of the party reads.
Respublica Party represented by Co-Chairman Syrymbek Tau at the debates, focuses on equalizing the level of education in urban and rural settlements, ensuring decent income, and development of medium businesses in rural areas.
The party has had meetings with more than 700,000 people across the country, having visited eight regions and three cities. The party prioritizes education and provision of equal learning conditions both for students in rural and urban settlements. The second point of the party’s election platform is to develop medium business in rural settlements. «We need to train more qualified specialists. Our main goal is to support qualified and well-educated specialists and hard-working population,» he stressed.
Another Party concentrating on rural settlements’ life is Auyl People’s Democratic Party. The word «auyl» is translated into English as «village». Zhiguli Dairabayev, who ran for the President’s seat in November elections, presented the party’s program at yesterday’s debates.
The party urges to raise the status of ordinary rural workers – engineers, mechanics, combine operators, cattle farmers, builders etc. Dairabayev says there are 280,000 various household farms across the country, which need to be exempted from taxes. «Worthy conditions must be created for the people working in agriculture,» he emphasized. He raised also the issues of gasification, internet access as well as opening cultural facilities in rural areas. The party calls to adopt a food security law in Kazakhstan.
Baitaq Green Party builds its election platform around the environment and human health protection. «CO2 emissions into the air amount to 364 million tonnes. How many people are at risk of illness? We must focus on household waste processing and energy issues,» member of the party Azamatkhan Amirtayev said during the debates. He noted the need to adopt a new law on local governmental authorities. «Today, there is no communication between the population and local governmental authorities. We need to adopt the new law as soon as possible, to make the people be heard in the Parliament,» he said. Another important point in the party’s program is that business must not interfere with politics.
Nurlan Auesbay, the representative of the Nationwide Social-Democratic Party, raised the issues of free healthcare, education, provision of comfortable housing to the people, increasing pensions, wages, social allowances, ensuring employment, and reduction of all high-interest loans in banking sector.
The party’s platform focuses on three pressing issues, he said. The first one is the introduction of European living standards into Kazakhstani society. «Even the most vulnerable and poor person in the country must meet specific standards. He must have an access to a consumer basket, as well as to medications, leisure, food, clothes etc» he said. The second point is the elimination of the oligarchic system. «People in Kazakhstan live in poverty, despite the country’s wealth. This wealth must be returned to the state,» he emphasized. And the third pressing issue is to carry out investigative work in the Parliament. «We must hold everything under people’s control. We constantly fight corruption. We are working on returning the wealth to the state,» he added.
Representative of the Ak Zhol Party Berik Dyussembinov spoke about liberalization of economy, restriction of the government’s involvement in it and support of business.
«Unfortunately, today we see only slides instead of the real economy. Enterprises, in which people's funds and programs were invested, are not operating properly. Our goal is to bring it all back,» he said. In his opinion, to make the Parliament more influential, budget-related issues should be accountable to the legislative branch. «In the elections, the party must form the Government. After all, over the past 30 years, no one was brought to responsibility either for the victories or for the failures of the Government,» he emphasized.