Kazakhstan heads to polls for first Kurultai election

Kazakhstan is holding its first elections to the new Kurultai, the country’s restructured unicameral parliament, this Sunday, August 23, with seven political parties competing for 145 seats.

The vote follows the entry into force of Kazakhstan’s new Constitution on July 1, which replaced the previous two-chamber Parliament with a single legislative body. The Kurultai will have 145 members elected for five-year terms.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree on 1 July setting the election date and instructing the Central Election Commission (CEC) to organise the vote. Speaking at a joint session of Parliament on 30 June, one day before the new Constitution came into force, he described the transition as a «historic turning point» and said the new Kurultai would provide an opportunity to demonstrate open, honest and competitive politics

Unlike the previous system, the new Kurultai will be elected entirely through proportional representation from closed party lists in one nationwide constituency. Voters will choose a political party rather than individual candidates.

Seven parties and 545 candidates on the ballot

Seven political parties have registered lists for the election, with 545 candidates competing for 145 mandates, according to the CEC:

Adilet Party
Nationwide Social Democratic Party
Kazakhstan Green Party Baitaq
People’s Party of Kazakhstan
Auyl Party
Ak Zhol Democratic Party
Respublica Party

The CEC said the lists contain 172 women and 373 men. A total of 74 candidates are younger than 35, while 19 are people with disabilities. The combined share of women, young people and people with disabilities across the lists is 43.9%.

The election is taking place in a different political environment from Kazakhstan’s 2023 parliamentary vote. The new constitutional framework removed the previous mixed electoral system, meaning there are no constituency-level independent candidates competing for Kurultai seats.

Read more: Nomad roots, modern laws: Visualizing Kazakhstan’s new Kurultai

The ruling camp is centred on Adilet, which emerged from the merger of the former Amanat and Adilet parties. Reuters reported that Adilet is expected to secure a significant majority, while the other parties are broadly supportive of Tokayev’s political agenda despite presenting different policy priorities.

The seven parties have campaigned on issues including economic development, social policy, agriculture, environmental protection and political reform. The CEC has included 12,605,788 voters on the national electoral lists. A total of 10,427 polling stations are in use inside Kazakhstan, and another 82 stations are operating abroad in 64 countries.

International monitoring

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) deployed a full election observation mission led by Ambassador Vincent Piket. Its core team consists of 12 experts, with 22 long-term observers deployed around Kazakhstan. The mission also planned to request 300 short-term observers from participating OSCE states.

The CIS and its Interparliamentary Assembly have also sent observation missions, while the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are among the other international organisations represented.

Read more: Kazakhstan expects hundreds of foreign observers for its parliament election

By early August, the CEC had received applications for an additional 155 observers from nine countries and four international organisations. The applications included 86 observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, 22 from the CIS observation mission, 23 from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and six from the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Myanmar, Romania and Ukraine have separately sent observers, according to the CEC’s update from 3 August.