In respect of the publicly expressed doubts of citizens and media, that the political parties, during the election campaigns, are illegally using the personal data of citizens, including those related to specific categories of citizens (beneficiaries of social assistance, pensioners, family members with disabilities), the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection reminds once again all the participants in the election campaign of their duty to comply with the regulations related to personal data of citizens.

The procession of the above mentioned and other personal data of citizens, without legal permissions and without consent of the citizens, is illegal and punishable under the law. Similar events occurred also during previous elections and the Commissioner has warned of them and reacted according to his authorizations, including the submission of the application to initiate the proceeding against the responsible representatives of the government, i.e. political parties.

The criminal proceedings led in some cases to punishments for responsible officials, however, mild and stipulated by law.

In connection with this, the Commissioner reminds that within our legal system we have also other, more serious forms of liability, which are out of the reach of the Commissioner (since the Commissioner has no legal or factual right to lead the criminal investigation or the criminal proceedings), does not function in practice and need to be activated. In connection with this, the Commissioner points out the provisions of the article 146 of the Criminal Code (KZ):

1) "Whoever without authorisation obtains, communicates to another or otherwise uses information that is collected, processed and used in accordance with law, for purposes other than those for which they are intended, shall be punished with a fine or imprisonment up to one year.

2) The penalty specified in paragraph 1 of this Article shall also be imposed on whomever contrary to law collects personal data on citizens and uses data so collected.

3) If the offence specified in paragraph 1 of this Article is committed by an official in discharge of duty, such person shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years."

The citizens which, under given circumstances, have suspicions that the criminal offence based on paragraph 3 of this article was committed (for the previous two paragraphs the proceeding is conducted based on private legal actions), are entitled to address the competent bodies, prosecutors office and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), and these bodies are obliged to check such circumstances and to take legal actions against the offenders.