Kazakhstan heads to the polls this week in a snap parliamentary election that is expected to strengthen President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s rule over the country. The last parliamentary elections were in 2023. The election comes just weeks after Kazakhstan, a nation of 21 million that borders Russia and China, revamped its legislative system by introducing constitutional changes and shifting from a dual-chamber parliament to a single-chamber one as it seeks to assert itself as a major democratic power in Central Asia.
How does the election process work and what’s at stake? Elections for the 145 seats of the Kurultai, the country’s new unicameral legislature, will take place on August 23. To enter government, parties must receive at least 5 percent of the overall vote.
Before July 1, when Kazakhstan’s new constitutional system came into effect, the parliament was bicameral, with the Mazhilis (lower house) and Senate (upper house). On the day the new system came into effect, President Tokayev signed a decree calling the snap election. According to national media outlet Astana Times, under the previous system, “legislation passed through the Mazhilis before moving to the Senate.
Under the new model, the Kurultai concentrates legislative consideration, and adopted laws are then sent to the President.” Under the new constitutional system, presidents will only be permitted to serve a single, seven-year term. However, when his current, second term as president is up, Tokayev will be able to run for a third seven-year term of office, since the introduction of the new legislature resets his time in office. He won the last presidential election, in 2022, with more than 80 percent of the vote, having run largely unchallenged, as all five of his competitors were unknowns.
International observers will attend the parliamentary election on Sunday. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly announced last week that nearly 80 parliamentarians and staff from about 30 countries would be deployed to observe the election. Seven political parties are fielding candidates in this year’s elections.
These include the newly formed Adilet party, Auyl, Aq Jol, the People’s Party of Kazakhstan, the Nationwide Social Democratic Party, Baytaq, and Respublica. Amanat, the party that has dominated Kazakh politics under various names since the 1990s, officially voted to dissolve itself into Adilet – which means “Justice” – a new party led by top aides to Tokayev, in June this year, largely to distance itself from Amanat’s former leader, the previous President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev, who was once close to Tokayev and considered his mentor, was the country’s president from 1991 to 2019.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
