Three Tickets Registered for Gubernatorial Ballot

TALAS — The Territorial Election Commission yesterday registered three tickets for the gubernatorial election on 7 November, and rejected two other nominations on signature-verification grounds under the procedures adopted in 2015.

Governor Erlan Toktarov of the Democratic Party of Irad, renominated by the party congress in Talas in August, will seek a fourth elected term with Lieutenant Governor Aidar Maksat as his running mate. He is opposed by Oleg Zubarev, an engineer and Nurzhan city councillor aligned with the city's Russian-speaking bloc, who is standing as an independent with a Nurzhan trade-union official as running mate, and by Damira Kenesbaeva, a Talas pediatrician known for her campaign on drinking-water quality in the city's outer districts.

The commission did not publish the names of the two rejected nominees. Under the 2015 procedures, nominations must be supported by verified signatures, and the commission said both had fallen short. Opposition lawyers say there is no effective appeal against the commission's decisions.

Two of the best-known critics of the government will not be on the ballot. Kamran Bekzatov, the president of NurGaz, has never stood for office and has not endorsed a candidate. The commentator Jason Ilyasov, a US citizen who settled in Talas in 2016, does not meet the Elective Governor Acts' requirement of ten years' residence and did not seek nomination. The official campaign opens this week.