Draft:Alash Online

ALASH online (formerly Egov.Press) is a non-governmental Kazakh petition site launched in 2020. In Kazakhstan, petitions on this site are aimed at provoking public outrage, since the initiatives put forward do not have legal force due to the lack of a legally established petition system.. .

In 2022, the website was moved to the domain alash.online following a court order over allegations that the site was fake. According to the information portal Massaget.kz, of the five most popular petitions, that is, those with the most votes, three led to a government response: renaming the capital Astana, recommendations for car recycling and child benefits.

Petitions in Kazakhstan are usually posted either on the Avaaz website, an international petition portal, or on the egovpress website, created by concerned citizens. State structures of Kazakhstan, called upon to monitor socio-political processes, report petitions to a review that reaches local authorities, the republican authorities, and the presidential administration.

After the January events in Kazakhstan, citizens began to actively publish various petitions and collect signatures. According to the editors of Malim.kz, seven petitions were launched that created a public outcry, but no one still knows who their real author is.

Founding
The project was launched by five citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan at their own expense with the goal of creating a petition institute in the state. The organization's employees are based in Kazakhstan and do not want to reveal their identities for security reasons. The very first petition on the site was published in October 2021. From July 25 to November 8, 2022, the site was visited by more than 539.7 thousand people. During this time, the authorities partially fulfilled five of the ten petitions of social significance published on the website.

Renaming of the capital of Kazakhstan
A petition to rename the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, to Astana was signed by 223,101 people. After an appeal on September 15, 2022, the proposal was supported by the city maslikhat and deputies voted for the renaming. On September 17, 2022, the president signed a bill to rename the capital. The petition was approved in full.

Lowering the retirement age for women
On October 30, 2021, Kazakhstanis filed a petition to reduce the retirement age for women to 55-58 years. The initiative collected more than 863,000 signatures, and a women's movement was formed that repeatedly advocated for pension reform. Following the petition, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on September 1, 2022 that the retirement age for women would be set at 61 by 2028.

Immunity of the ex-president
On January 18, 2022, a petition was created on the website calling for the immunity of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to be revoked. On February 15, 2023, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the Constitutional Law abolishing the immunity of the first president of Kazakhstan.

Resignation of Akim of Almaty
On July 6, 2023, a petition appeared on the website calling on Erbolat Dosaev to resign due to criticism of his activities by city residents. The petition was supported by 12,556 people, 9,947 were against. Within a minute, the number of supporters of the resignation decreased, and the petition was rejected by 10,017 people. The site's authors reported a specific bot attack from Russia. Kazakh political scientist Anton Morozov called those who signed the petition bots. According to him, two people can easily create the appearance of activity of tens of thousands of users

Benefit for disabled people
A 47-year-old resident of Jambyl region published a petition in which he addressed the President of Kazakhstan and demanded a 100 percent increase in disability pensions. The petition collected about 7 thousand signatures. Some time later, the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered to increase benefits for people with special needs by 14.5% from September 1, 2023

Recycling fee for transport
A petition to completely abolish the recycling fee, launched on October 31, 2021, has received 130,000 signatures. . After the petition, on January 11, 2022, the President of Kazakhstan criticized the ROP Operator company. In October 2022, Parliament passed a law that would remove the company's right to charge fees for scrapping vehicles

Ambassador of Ukraine to Kazakhstan
The petition for the deportation of Ukrainian Ambassador Petro Vrublevsky in connection with his scandalous statements, submitted on August 22, 2022, collected 42 thousand signatures. . After the petition, he was voluntarily recalled from Kazakhstan in agreement with the Ukrainian side and ceased to be the Ambassador of Ukraine to Kazakhstan

Extension of child care benefits
On January 18, 2022, a petition was launched to extend child care benefits to three years, which collected 125 thousand signatures. . President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on September 1, 2022 that from January 1, 2023, the child care benefit will be extended to one and a half years

Petitions under discussion
Magazines and books are still discussing petitions published on the websites egov.press and alash.online about Kazakhstan’s withdrawal from the CSTO, against treating drug addicts with methadone , increasing disability benefits and opening Kazakh language centers

On January 22, 2022, a petition appeared on the website asking for schoolgirls in Kazakhstan to be allowed to wear headscarves. In one day, the initiative collected 20,250 signatures, and two days later it was removed from the site for unknown reasons

Criticism
The television company Astana TV filmed a report on “fake petitions” published on the website egov.press and called for the creation of a domestic platform

In 2022, Kazakh journalist Yuri Masanov said that the petition website egov.press was fake. After the journalist’s publication, the site was blocked by a court decision in Kazakhstan on June 20, 2022. After blocking, the petition site egov.press moved to a new domain alash.online.

In June 2023, the international foundation for the protection of freedom of speech “Adil Soz” included egov.press in the list of violations of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan