49. Do candidates have to report on their election campaign finances?

Article 34

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6. The financial resources forming the election fund shall be kept at a special temporary bank account, opened in the financial bodies by the corresponding election commission after registration of the candidate or the party list. No income shall be charged or paid for this account. The right to give the name of the election fund for the purposes specified in this Constitutional Law shall belong exclusively to the candidate and the political parties, which have nominated their party lists. The banks shall submit to the corresponding election commission a weekly report on the transfers to the funds to the special temporary bank accounts as well as on spending. Upon the inquiry of the corresponding election commission, the same data shall be provided within twenty four hours. The order of spending the money from the election funds and the corresponding financial institution shall be determined by the Central Election Commission.

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 9. Within five days after establishment of the results of the elections, the candidate and the political party shall be obliged to present to the corresponding election commission a report on the estimation of the funds from the election fund. The two thirds of the financial resources from the election fund that have not been spent for the electoral campaign shall be transferred to the republican budget, and one third shall be returned to the candidate and the political party.

 (Constitutional Act of the Republic of Kazakhstan, On Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan, 1995 available at https://www.election.gov.kz/rus/normativno-pravovaya-baza-vyborov/zakon-respubliki-kazakhstan/zakon-o-vyborakh-v-respublike-kazakhstan.php  accessed January 2018).

IX. CAMPAIGN FINANCE

According to the CEC, all three candidates submitted financial reports to the CEC within five days of the announcement of election results, meeting the legal deadline. While the campaign fund of President Nazarbayev was larger than that of the other candidates, none of the candidates reached the contribution or spending limits. No breaches of campaign rules were identified by the CEC. Article 34.4 of the Election Law requires the CEC to publish in the mass media information about the amount and sources of funding of each candidate within ten days of the announcement of election results. OSCE/ODIHR EOM media monitoring indicated that the information was not made readily available in media by this deadline. Once the information was posted on the CEC website it did not provide detailed information on the amount and source of campaign contributions or the amount and purpose of campaign expenditures. To enhance transparency, the Election Law could be amended to provide that detailed financial reports are made publicly available and posted on the CEC website.

(OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report, Republic of Kazakhstan, Early Parliamentary Elections 20 March 2016, available at http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/kazakhstan/248781?download=true accessed January 2018).