ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Cries of foul play rang out in Kazakhstan on Thursday as the vast former Soviet republic prepared for its first contested parliamentary elections.


A local human rights group protested to the central election committee about the barring of candidates, opposition politicians alleged unfair practices and a government official conceded that some "mistakes" had been made.


Monday's elections will usher in a new political era, giving the nation a permanent 177-seat parliament to replace the cumbersome 360-seat body bequeathed by the defunct Soviet Union.


Officials said almost a third of the candidates applying for registration had been rejected. Some of the prospective candidates described the charges against them as trumped up.


"The applications of 692 candidates have been registered and a further 64 candidates have been nominated by the president," said Nikolai Orlovsky, head of a department at the central election commission, in an interview.


"The applications of 218 candidates have not been accepted. These were people who did not meet the standards for registration. Many of them faked signatures."


Candidates must collect the signatures of 3,000 supporters to secure registration.


"I got 3,500 signatures but the local election committee told me 800 were fake," said Yevgeny Yovtis, vice president of the Independent Trade Union of Kazakhstan, whose appeal has been turned down by a local court and an Almaty court.


"They will never let me run because I am competing against the former boss of the head of the local election committee."


Local election committee officials, chosen by local administrations, have the power to bar candidates deemed to have faked signatures, Orlovsky said. President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed the central election committee.


"Of course, Nazarbayev is trying to form a parliament which will be useful and loyal to him," Yovtis said.


An independent Kazakh human rights group protested to the central election committee over the disqualification of candidates and said courts were too slow to deal with appeals.


"The courts take at least one week to deal with candidates who appeal against disqualification but the election law says appeals must be dealt with within three days," said Esengul Chukurova of the Democratic Committee on Human Rights.Asked for his reaction to the protest, Orlovsky said: "We are building a democratic society in Kazakhstan but of course there are some mistakes."