New Kazakh parliament opens - Telegraph Election monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's main democracy watchdog, saw the election on Sunday slightly differently. They described the vote as restrictive and falling short of democratic standards. The two new parties broadly support the president and Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission had disqualified the country's opposition leaders and parties from the election before the vote. Opposition leaders have called for a mass protest on Jan 28 against the election. At the start of the new parliament, Karim Masimov, was confirmed as the prime minister, a post he has held since January 2007. There had been speculation that he would be replaced. In an interview with Reuters, Mr Masimov described violence last month in the west of the country which killed at least 17 people as a "touchy issue" and said he would focus on stability. "The number one issue is macroeconomic stability," he said according to Reuters. No county in the world is immune to the upcoming crisis. We should be responsive to this issue.