THREE PARTIES TO MAKE UP KAZAKHSTAN’S NEW PARLIAMENT 

Astana, January 17: On January 16, the Central ElectionCommission (CEC) of Kazakhstan announced final results of the election to the lower chamber of the country’s Parliament, Majilis, held on Sunday Jan. 15.

According to the CEC, the Nur Otan Party received 80.99%, Ak Zhol 7.47%, the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan (CPPK) 7.19%, All-National Social Democratic Party (ASDP) 1.68%, Auyl 1.19%, the Party of Patriots 0.83%, and Adilet 0.66%.

“This election was unprecedented in terms of openness, transparency and fairness,” President Nursultan Nazarbayev who is also the leader of the ruling Nur Otan Party said at the stroke of midnight of January 16. “Kazakhstan has once again proved that we are dynamically moving forward towards a democratic state,” he said.

According to the national election law, the three parties which cleared the seven percent threshold will now enter the country’s 107-member legislature with proportional allotment of seats, namely the Nur Otan party with 83 seats, the pro-business Ak Zhol party with eight seats, and the communist CPPK with seven seats. The remaining nine seats have been allotted on January 16 by the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, a unique political body that represents various ethnic groups that make up the population of the multiethnic state of Kazakhstan.

The official results were generally in line with exit polls separately conducted on Election Day by the “Strategy” Centre for Social Research Non-Governmental Foundation and the Institute for Social and Political Studies. Earlier at night, the two organisations released their reports detailing the Majilis election’s exit polling that had Nur Otan tallying 80.5% and 81.3% respectively, Ak Zhol 7.9% and 7.2%, and the CPPK 7.3% and 7.1%.

Some 819 observers from international organisations, including the SCO, the ODIHR/OSCE, the OSCE PA, the PACE, the CIS, the Turkic Council, and from 29 countries, were invited to observe the election to the Majilis and local maslikhats across the country. The CEC also accredited 170 foreign media representatives to cover the electoral process in Kazakhstan.

Some 6.9 million people, or 75.1% of Kazakhstan’s registered voters, cast ballots on Jan.15. High suffrage turnout of 63.6% was registered in the town of Zhanaozen, currently under the state of emergency announced there after an outbreak of violent civil disorders on December 16 last year.

“The events in Zhanaozen united our people, and we have developed an understanding that we should cherish the peace and stability in our country, and our inter-relationship,” President Nazarbayev at a session of the Assembly on January 16.

The country’s foreign ministry in association the CEC opened 56 polling stations at the country’s diplomatic missions abroad where some 8,406 citizens, or 93.55% of those included in the list, exercised their constitutional right to vote.