With the recent reelection of Nursultan Nazarbayev to the presidency in Kazakhstan, Christians in the nation are expecting continued harassment and persecution.
There has been a crackdown on home churches that worship or meet without state permission and pastors are fined huge penalties that they could not hope to pay in their lifetime.
Baptist pastor Andrei Panafidin of Taraz in southern Kazakhstan, for example, has been imposed a fine equivalent to 100 times one month’s minimum wage–for the seventh time, BosNewsLife reported.
A number of evangelical Christians refuse to register on principle. But even when a church attempts to seek government permission to gather together for prayer, they encounter great difficulty, BosNewsLife said.
What is more, being registered is no guarantee that a church will be free to hold services.
A house church in Shymkent city that is registered was still banned from holding worship service, according to BosNewsLife.
Renting space in a commercial center (as opposed to a house church) is also filled with obstacles.
The Almaty university, situated in the country’s commercial center, was pressured by the country’s Interior Ministry and its notorious KNB secret police to disallow rental of facilities to Christians and other religious minorities, BosNewsLife reported.
Absolute authority
Nazarbayev exerts full authority in a nation with no free and independent media, judiciary, or government opposition, Al Jazeera said. Furthermore, systemic corruption has rendered the nation with large gaps between the rich and the poor.
Nazarbayev denies that he runs an autocratic government. He stresses, “[The] Kazakh people approve of the work I have been doing these 20 years.”
After the recent elections he claims to have won 95.5 percent of the votes, BosNewsLife said.
Vladimir Kozlov, head of the unregistered political party Alga! (Forward!) told Al Jazeera, “The regime uses many ways to limit us. They start criminal cases…or they can just shoot people.” Of the elections he said, “We think it’s an insult. We didn’t think it gave us enough time to participate.”
The election was called with just two months’ notice, The Economist said. Kozlov expected Nazarbayev to get 96 percent of the votes but he also told Al Jazeera, “it will be 96 percent of the 15 percent who partake in these elections.”
General opinion is that Nazarbayev still enjoys immense popularity despite his heavy hand.
The opposition is viewed as poorly organized, with no clear ideology and no financial support, according to Al Jazeera.
Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan since the time of the Soviet Union. Upon his reelection he claimed that it “proved that unity ruled among ethnic groups and religions, and all was bliss,” according to The Economist
Tabulation not transparent
Not everyone agrees. Some 300 election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said there was not enough transparency in the counting and tabulation of votes, The Economist said.
The OSCE also mentioned “serious irregularities,” such as stuffing ballot boxes and voters lists with identical signatures.
They also said people were pressured to vote, especially government employees from hospitals, schools and the armed forces, The Economist reported.
It is not unusual for election dates to be set at the whim of authorities in this oil-rich country. Nazarbayev’s term was expected to be over near the end of 2012. Then, a nationwide move was initiated to collect signatures to approve of a referendum on whether to extend his term to 2020—a move that the West strongly opposed, The Economist said.
In its stead Nazarbayev called for early elections which was agreeable to the West, The Economist reported. Nonetheless, international observers have never considered any election in the country to be fair and free, BosNewsLife said.
No middle class
Nazarbayev is given credit for guiding the country out of near economic devastation in the 1990s, Al Jazzera said. Under him, market reforms were initiated and oil and gas reserves gave an added boost. The GDP rose from $700 to $8,000, The Economist reported.
However, there is a wide gap between the wealthy and the poor. The rich are linked to oil production and oftentimes they are also the political elite. There is no middle class, Al Jazeera reported.
The Economist said that Nazarbayev would have likely won the elections anyway, even if he did not resort to rigging. Still, his record where religious freedom is concerned remains wanting.
Topic: Harder times for Kazakhstan Christians expected after presidential elections (Read 373 times)