Oppositions holds unauthorized meeting in Alma-Ata

An unauthorized rally protesting the recently held parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan begun in downtown Alma-Ata on Saturday, a RIA Novosti correspondent said. The campaign gathered around 1,000 people, according to local media. Before the start of the rally, police blocked the Square in front of the Republic’s Palace – the planned site of the event. About 100 policemen with rubber truncheons are remaining there. Protesters staged their campaign nearby. Last week the Nationwide Social Democratic Party (NSDP) dissatisfied with the results of parliamentary elections, held a 250-strong rally in Alma-Ata. Protesters expressed their discontent with the results of elections and burned copy of the protocol of the election committee. The rally lasted no more than 45 minutes, then its members left the square. The controversy came just one month after over a dozen people were killed in clashes between striking oil workers and police in the Caspian Sea city of Zhanaozen in Kazakhstan's worst bloodshed since the fall of the Soviet Union.