Election shows that Kazakhstan is on the right track

In their April 11 op-ed [“Kazakhstan’s fictional democracy”], David J. Kramer and Sam Patten wrote about Kazakhstan’s recent presidential election with a certainty that is not supported by the facts. Despite the authors’ assertions, many observers lauded the substantial progress toward democracy that Kazakhstan demonstrated during the April 3 plebiscite.

A monitoring unit from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said, “The delegation is united in its view that despite certain imperfections that invariably mar all elections in any country, the outcome of this vote truly reflects the will of Kazakhstan’s electorate.” Margarita Assenova, executive director of the Institute for New Democracies, offered a similar view: “The people credit the wise leadership of [President Nursultan] Nazarbayev for peace, stability, economic development and ethnic harmony in Kazakhstan. They want this to continue.”

Kazakhstan is on the right track and is committed to achieving its goal of building a politically and economically liberal, dynamic and prosperous nation. It may be a while before every international observer says the nation has met these goals. But Kazakhs are full of enthusiasm and energy and are determined to persevere.

Kazakhstan is tired of being constantly lambasted and branded (very often in an uninformed way) as a dictatorship. Apart from being unfair, this is not the smartest way to encourage positive growth and partnerships around the world.

Erlan Idrissov, Washington

The writer is Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the United States.