About 12.6 million out of 20 million inhabitants in the country have the right to vote.
In March, the country adopted a new constitution, according to which the upper house of parliament – the Senate – was abolished and a transition was made to a unicameral parliament called the kurultai – a reference to the medieval councils of nomadic peoples living in Central Asia.
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Officials say this change will give the institution more weight in making political decisions, as previously, under a system where power was concentrated in the hands of the president, it played mostly an auxiliary role.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to power in 2019, speaks about the reform program “Fair Kazakhstan” after protests over the cost of living in 2022 escalated into riots in which 238 people died.
73-year-old K.-J. Tokayev says he is trying to distance himself from his authoritarian predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled the country for three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However, in Sunday’s vote, only seven state-approved parties were allowed to nominate candidates, all of which are more or less loyal to K.-J. Tokayev.
In reality, the opposition was banned from nominating their candidates.
The result is beyond doubt – the party supporting K.-J. Tokayev, “Adilet,” is expected to win the majority of the 145 seats.
This party is essentially a rebranding of the current ruling party “Amanat,” created specifically to support K.-J. Tokayev’s agenda.
Constitutional amendments also removed term limits that would otherwise have applied to K.-J. Tokayev, allowing him to run again in 2029, although the president himself has said he does not intend to stay in office longer.
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