Correction: Kazakhstan-Elections story

MOSCOW – In a story sent March 21 about Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Geir Joergen Bekkevold acted as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s special co-ordinator for election observation in Kazakhstan. Bekkevold was the head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Delegation of observers for the election.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Observers see irregularities in Kazakh election

An international election observation group says there were irregularities in Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections, which affirmed the ruling party’s grip on power

An international election observation group says there were irregularities in Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections, which affirmed the ruling party’s grip on power.

According to a Central Elections Commission statement Monday, preliminary results show President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party winning 82 per cent of the vote.

The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s delegation of observers, Geir Joergen Bekkevold, told reporters on Monday that international observers, who were allowed unfettered access, observed ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.

The vote comes amid a collapse in Kazakhstan’s economic fortunes caused by the falling price for oil, its main export commodity. Inflation is around 15 per cent and the currency has lost 30 per cent of its value.