SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

The giant Tengiz Oil Field under Kazakhstan's renowned inhospitable steppes pumped $1.6 billion into the economy last year, but it also is at the center of a U.S. bribery probe keeping this former Soviet republic's longtime leader - President Nursultan Nazarbayev - on edge.

Nazarbayev's Otan party has claimed success for the country's economic boom, with nearly 10 percent annual growth in recent years. The party credits market reforms - although it mostly results from large foreign investment to exploit the country's estimated 100 billion barrels of oil.

However, the opposition says more of the country's 15 million people could be benefiting from the oil riches.

"All goes to a narrow circle of government officials and oligarchs", said Bolat Abilov, co-chairman of the largest opposition party, Ak Zhol.

When Kazakhs vote Sunday, Nazarbayev's party faces strong opposition. However, his main challenger will be a party run by his own daughter.

Some believe the apparent rivalry between Nazarbayev's Otan party and his daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva's Asar party is real, while others believe it is a ploy to steal votes from the opposition and legitimize her eventual assumption of power.

She denies any family succession plans, and the 64-year-old president has said he would seek another seven-year term in 2006. The president needs a loyal parliament for that race.

More than 550 candidates are contesting 67 seats in the lower house of Parliament, now controlled by the president's loyalists. Another 10 seats will be divided among eight parties and two election blocs that win at least 7 percent of votes.

Pre-election polls show President Nazarbayev's Otan party leading, with his daughter's party in second.

The elder Nazarbayev - who in recent years has been criticized for turning authoritarian - badly needs a free and fair vote. Election irregularities could jeopardize Kazakhstan's bid to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009 and lead to confrontation with the opposition, which already accuses authorities of manipulating the election.

Several opposition parties threaten not to recognize the new Parliament if their observers record breaches during voting and tallying.

Polls across this country four times the size of Texas open Sunday at 7 a.m. local time and close at 8 p.m. There are 8.9 million eligible voters. Preliminary results are expected later Sunday night.

More than 1,000 international observers will monitor the elections. Opposition parties and nongovernment organizations also are mobilizing hundreds of their own observers.

The OSCE has said local election commissions lack political balance.

The opposition and independent observers also raised concerns about the government's plan to introduce electronic voting, saying it was being put into practice too hastily and could allow vote-rigging.

On Saturday, authorities said they would test the system in 10 percent of electoral districts.

The issue of wealth distribution is a central one in the election. A U.N. report in May said nearly one-fourth of the population - or more than 3.7 million people - lived in absolute poverty in 2002 with incomes below the subsistence minimum.

The report urged the Kazakh government to use oil export revenues "more prudently."

The Ak Zhol party said if it wins, it would transfer three-quarters of tax revenues from mineral resources extraction into Kazakh citizens' bank accounts.

Other opposition parties, Democratic Choice and the Communists, are campaigning together under the slogan: "Let's return the country's wealth to the people!"

President Nazarbayev also has been dogged by corruption allegations stemming from a U.S. bribery investigation involving his former adviser on oil contracts.

New York banker James H. Giffen was indicted last year on charges of making more than $78 million in unlawful payments to two senior Kazakh officials in the 1990s for U.S. oil companies, including Mobil, which was buying a share in the Tengiz project.

Nazarbayev called the alleged connection between the investigation and top Kazakh officials "insinuations and a provocation."