Monti dodged potholes, cattle and sheep in Kazakhstan
It had been a long 18-hour day observing a presidential election in the Republic of Kazakhstan on April 26 when Garrett Monti realized this was pretty exciting.
“I thought it was an interesting opportunity, especially to compare and contrast election procedures,” Monti said, who was on his first tour as an international election observer. “It’s important to have free and fair elections.”
Not a bad day’s work considering a small business owner in Luling, was helping shape democracy in a country that was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence in 1991.
“I’ve been on the ballot before and if you don’t have free and fair elections you don’t have a stable system,” he said. “Systems like ours don’t come up over night.”
The United States is a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), made up of a diplomatic body of nations, whose mission includes observing and assisting elections in member nations – and one of them is Kazakhstan.
Monti applied for the position and was accepted. The position is voluntary, but it’s an all expense paid trip.His first trip out was to this Central Asian country, which is the world’s largest landlocked country by land area the ninth largest country in the world at about 1 million square miles. It borders Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Monti was among 280 people (32 from the U.S.) sent to observe the election. He worked in the West Kazakhstan province where his team went to Uralsk, near the Ural River. Aided by a driver and interpreter, the team’s job was to observe, not interfere, and report what they saw.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “The country is beautiful and the people are very friendly. They treated us very well.”The country is a presidential republic with 9.5 million voters as of April 5 with a strong president, Nursultan Nazarbayev of the Nur Otan party.
The incumbent since 1991, Nazarbayev, won with 97.7 percent of the vote with 95.22 percent turnout. Although the country has a constitutional limit of two consecutive terms by one individual, it doesn’t apply to the incumbent “as the First President.”
They don’t have absentee or mail-in voting like in the U.S., but they bring the ballot box to the elderly and infirm. Like the US, voters must present ID before voting.
In 2011, when Monti ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for Louisiana’s 19th Senate District, he said then that he would work to make government work more effectively and efficiently. He also worked on the St. Charles Board of Elections for eight years and as a member of the Electoral College in 2012, which is where he learned about the opportunity to serve as an international election observer.
In Kazakhstan, he saw a different system.
“Everyone votes on election day. Period,” he said. “If you are unable to vote at your normal polling place, you receive a certificate allowing to vote wherever you are.”
Overall, Monti said the people hold western elections in high regard and were genuinely excited to have the observers there as an affirmation of a good election.
Based on his observations, the country has a good election system and he didn’t see any irregularities. However, OSCE advised there weren’t enough choices for president (the incumbent and two others).
While the countryside is beautiful, the ride to see it was rough.
“The roads were not so great,” he said. “We dodged potholes, cattle, and sheep. It was quite the experience.”Monti also realized how plentiful things are in the U.S. when he visited a pharmacy and grocery store.“It was strange culture shock,” he said. “Everything is behind the counter. Products are not displayed out in the open.”
The capitol city of Astana is the country’s new city, moving the capitol there in 1997. Monti described it as futuristic city having a “Disney World quality” while the rest of the country is more utilitarian. Natural gas pipes, all painted yellow, run above ground everywhere.
“Things are not that colorful with gray concrete buildings,” he said. “The capitol was more for show and to impress, but the other cities I saw were starkly utilitarian.”
“I enjoyed it,” Monti said. “If offered the opportunity, I’d go back. The people were nice and surprisingly open. They genuinely want to participate in the process.”
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