Ruling party wins Kazakh elections with more than 53%, according to polls

Astana, Mar 19 (EFE).- The ruling AMANAT party won the extraordinary legislative elections held Sunday in Kazakhstan with more than 53% of the votes, according to exit polls.

According to the poll of the Institute for Eurasian Integration, the official party, previously known as Nur Otan until 2022, obtained 53.46% of the votes, while the one carried out by the Institute of Democracy reported that it had garnered 53.33%.

Five other parties were able to overcome the 5% barrier that allows access to the proportional distribution of the 69 seats in the Lower House of Parliament or Mazhilis that are elected by lists of political formations.

Second place, according to the polls, was obtained by the Auyl (Village) party with between 10 and 11.26%, followed by Respublika, a formation created by a group of businessmen, with 8.9%; the Ak Zhol Democratic Party, with 8.2%; the People’s Party of Kazakhstan, with 6.8%.

The polls differ on the fate of the opposition Social Democratic Party, which according to one survey managed to overcome the 5% barrier, while another indicated that it would be left out of the distribution of seats.

The Baitak environmental party would have no chance of gaining access to the Mazhilis, since the polls give it just over 2% of the vote.

The remaining 29 Mazhilis deputies are elected in majority constituencies, in which 435 candidates compete, 359 of them independent, and 76 presented by political formations.

According to preliminary data from the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), which has one week to publish the final results of the elections, 54.19 percent of the electoral census participated in Sunday’s elections, estimated at more than 12.3 million citizens.

The extraordinary legislative elections were called within the framework of the renewal of institutions promoted by the country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Along with the parliamentary polling, local elections were held, also extraordinary.

“These elections are the final stage of remodeling state institutions and will fill the formula ‘a strong president, an influential parliament, a responsible government’ with real content,” Tokayev said after voting.

More than 800 observers from 41 countries and 12 international organizations were accredited by the CEC. EFE

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