By empty (9/30/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Kazakh Central Election Commission issued a ruling on 30 September certifying the eligibility of 11 presidential candidates. The ruling verifies that the 11 candidates have met all of the commission\'s requirements, including the state Kazakh-language test, for the 4 December presidential election. The most prominent of these candidates include incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbaev; Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, the leader of the opposition \"For a Just Kazakhstan\" bloc; parliamentarians Ualikhan Kaisarov and Erasyl Abylkasymov; businessman Salim Oten; lawyer Mekemtas Tleulesov; and Alikhan Baimenov, the leader of the Ak Zhol party.

By empty (9/30/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kyrgyzstan views relations with Russia as a priority, said Kyrgyz Prime Minister Felix Kulov. \"We consider Russia to be a priority in our foreign political relations,\" Kulov said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Friday. Kulov, who is on a working visit to Russia, has had meetings with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Fradkov and members of the Russian business community.

By empty (9/30/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Twelve citizens of Uzbekistan, one from Kyrgyzstan, and one from Russia, who are being held in a pretrial-detention center in Ivanovo, have declared a hunger strike. The Uzbeks were arrested in June on suspicion of taking part in the mid-May violence in the Uzbek city of Andijon. In an interview with Ekho Moskvy on 29 September, Vitalii Ponomarev of Memorial said that only one of those in custody was even in Andijon at the time and this was because he was required to go back to have his passport changed after his 45th birthday.