The campaigning has started off with a full swing and massive international attention in Kazakhstan. The betting has started to see who of the few that are brave enough to oppose the 'leader' of the Kazakh people Nazarbaev will actually have a chance at gaining numbers in the polls. Originally the central election committee started out with 22 candidates, these candidates had to raise 90,000 signatures to even be considered; and to top it of pass a Kazakh language test. Unfortunately like most of us in this world Kazakh does not come easy to us, about 11 of the candidates did not pass the language test and have been disqualified. The remaining few are, the eccentric Gandi Qasymov who has been the most outspoken individual in this race; frequently making outlandish comments just to be on the front page news. The second man of the hour is Zhambyl Akhmetbekov who is the secretary of the Peoples Communist Party. Zhambyl has admitted that his party has very little money to play with ($135,000) and will be heavily focusing on social media and other forms of web based platforms. The last candidate is Mels Eleusizov who is Kazakhstan's most notable ecologists. Mels is the head of the Tabighat (Nature) environmental organization and has publicly stated that his party has little to nothing in campaigning money, therefore they will rely solely on the financing of the central elections committee. Apart from the two latter candidates the outspoken Gani seems to have a chance at advancing in the polls, interestingly enough Nazarbaev has refused to partake in the physical aspects of campaigning and has assigned people from his party to do all the campaigning foot work. There has also been some dissatisfied candidates that have been disqualified due to whatever reason. Serik Saparghali has tried to organize a press conference to announce his dissatisfaction with the present race and to call for Azerbaev's resignation. Unfortunately the authorities have refused to allow this sort of media attention and he was forced to hold a makeshift press meet outside.

There are a couple of interesting points to make with the Kazakh election in its' early stages. The fact that Nazarbaev has officially called for an early election would make you think that there is something up his sleeve. But as I have predicted before the middle east uprising have inspired a lot of king of the hill dictators (the smart ones) to rearrange their positions and try to appease to the blood thirsty crowds (or in this case hungry crowds). The call for election not only takes the media attention away from Libya and Yemen it also brings new headlines for society to squabble about. If anything this is something that most politicians should have done in order to either save themselves or the stability of a country/region. The other point that needs to be addressed is the complete apathy that Nazarbaev has shown towards his camp. He has refused to meet with people, he has very little to say about the election in general. It is almost like the 70 year old is loosening his grip on the state and slowly transferring it to someone else. But as we say in Poland 'he'll only give it up through his teeth', and someone will have to fight him for that special seat. So there are two outcomes here, either he transfers the power to someone else (in the direct-indirectly kind of fashion)or he will push for another couple more years. The disgruntled candidate Serik made a very good point at his outdoor gathering, "I do not believe that a man, who was not able to run a country properly before he reached 70, will be able to run the country after he is 70." The candidates have till April 1 to wine and dine the people of Kazakhstan, anyone care for a Nazarbaev key chain?