Astana, 20 March 2023 (GNP): On March 19, Kazakhstan conducted elections for the Maslikhats, local administrative bodies, and the Mazhilis, the lower house of the parliament.
Seven political parties, including two new ones, ran campaigns for seats in the Mazhilis. With a 5% threshold for political parties to gain seats in parliament, the election was conducted in a proportional-majoritarian manner, with 69 seats distributed based on party lists and 29 allocated in single-mandate constituencies.
There were around 281 party-list candidates for the 69 seats and about 370 single-mandate candidates, including independent and self-nominated candidates, for the 29 seats.
The Amanat party won with 53.9% of the vote, according to preliminary data released by the Central Election Commission on March 20 (over 3.4 million votes).
The came in first with the Auyl party got 10.9% votes and remained 2nd, followed by the Respublica party, the Aq Jol party, People’s Party of Kazakhstan, National Social Democratic Party and Baytaq Party with 8.59%, 8.41%, 6.8%, 5.2% and 2.3% of the votes respectively.
Early results show that six of the seven parties that participated in the election obtained the 5% of the vote required to secure seats in parliament. The “against all” option was selected by over 3.90% of respondents.From more than 12 million eligible voters in Kazakhstan, over 6.3 million cast votes in elections, or about 54% of the total.
In several areas, such as Kyzylorda, Zhambyl, Kostanai, North Kazakhstan, and East Kazakhstan, voter participation was high, ranging from 64.15% to 67.21%.
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Contrary, voter participation was low in significant cities like as Astana, Shymkent, and Almaty which was 42.41%, 45.46% and 25.82% repectively.
The election was watched by international observers from 12 different international organisations and 41 different nations.
According to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, election preparations went well and candidates ran spirited and unrestricted campaigns.
The election was transparent and free of major irregularities, according to observers from a number of organisations, including Margarita Assenova of the Jamestown Foundation and Erhan Türbedar, vice president of the International Turkic Academy.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s political renewal cycle, which started with a presidential election in November 2020 and went on to include a Senate election in January 2021, culminated with the election.
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In comparison to previous elections, the electoral system has undergone considerable changes as a result of constitutional amendments made last year.
The parliamentary seat-acquisition threshold for political parties was lowered from 7% to 5%. The proportional-majoritarian approach was used for the first time since 2004, and 30% of Mazhilis members were chosen in single-member districts.
It is important to remember that these changes aimed to increase inclusivity and competition in the voting process.
Foreign observers praised the election, praising the candidates’ energetic and unrestricted campaigning as well as the democratic, transparent, and reliable nature of the voting process.
Nonetheless, poor voter participation in several major cities suggests that more has to be done to boost political engagement. Although the precise results will not be made public right away, preliminary returns show that the Amanat party has secured a majority.