[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5579-5580]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  CONGRATULATING PRESIDENT NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV OF KAZAKHSTAN ON HIS 
                           RECENT RE-ELECTION

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 7, 2011

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate His 
Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev on his re-election as President of the 
Republic of Kazakhstan.
  Kazakhstan welcomed more than 1,059 domestic and international 
observers to monitor the conduct of the electoral process for purposes 
of making sure that the election was free and fair and open and 
transparent. These observers included an OSCE Election Observation 
Mission (EOM), 400 short-term observers from the Office for Democratic 
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as well as independent observers 
from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Commonwealth of Independent 
States (CIS), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and 
other international and non-profit organizations. Some 90 foreign media 
representatives were also temporarily accredited with the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan to cover the election.
  Although the election was not without criticism, the OSCE stated that 
``compared to the last presidential election, the media provided more 
equality in covering candidates in the news programmes,'' and 
suggestions made by ODIHR and the OSCE observer mission regarding ways 
to further improve the electoral process were well taken by Astana.
  On April 4, 2011, the U.S. Embassy in Astana was among the first to 
congratulate President Nazarbayev on his April 3, 2011 re-election, 
acknowledging Kazakhstan's commitment to further liberalize the 
political environment while urging the government of

[[Page 5580]]

Kazakhstan to address the shortcomings the OSCE report highlighted. I 
stand with our U.S. Embassy and commend Kazakhstan for the progress it 
is making on its march towards democracy, especially given that 
Kazakhstan only achieved its independence twenty years ago, having 
lived under Soviet oppression for some one hundred years.
  As President Nazarbayev noted in his Op Ed of April 1, 2011 published 
in the Washington Post, ``It took the great democracies of the world 
centuries to develop'' and, as such, Kazakhstan is not going to become 
a fully developed democracy overnight. But Kazakhstan has proved that 
its commitment to democracy is irreversible. So is Kazakhstan's long-
standing friendship with the U.S.
  Since its independence, Kazakhstan has fully supported U.S.-led 
efforts against nuclear proliferation and, under the leadership of 
President Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan continues to provide indispensable aid 
to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
  I am proud of Kazakhstan's accomplishments and, once more, I 
congratulate President Nazarbayev on his re-election as President of 
Kazakhstan. I have every confidence that he will spare no effort in 
delivering stability, security and prosperity for and on behalf of the 
people of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

                          ____________________