General election in Kazakhstan 2021
The parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan 2021 took place on January 10, 2021 in Kazakhstan . 98 members of the Mäschilis , the lower house of the Kazakh parliament, were elected. As had been expected in advance, Nur Otan won the election by a large margin ahead of all other parties. Although some improvements were made to the electoral law, the OSCE criticized severely restricted election campaigns and systematic restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
Electoral system
The election to the lower house of the Kazakh parliament is held as a proportional representation with closed party lists . The entire country represents a single electoral district , in which the 98 Mäschilis members are elected for a five-year term. There is a seven percent threshold that must be met by a party in order to win seats. The remaining nine MPs are not directly elected by the people, but are reserved for ethnic minorities. Instead, they are determined by the People's Assembly of Kazakhstan . The electoral system in Kazakhstan was reformed in 2017, the main aim of which was to redistribute political power. In the following years the electoral law was amended a total of four times. This changed the composition of election commissions and made it easier for voters with disabilities to participate in elections. In addition, a quota of at least 30 percent for candidates who must be women or young people was introduced for electoral lists . In addition, the hurdles for the official registration of a party have been lowered. For example, only 20,000 party members are required instead of the 40,000 previously required, but there are still more difficult regulations for registration.
The voting rights have all Kazakh citizens who are choosing to date is at least 18 years old. This excludes people who have been declared unfit to vote by a court or who are serving a prison sentence at the time of the election, regardless of the seriousness of the crime. To be eligible to stand on a party list, applicants must be at least 25 years old and have lived in Kazakhstan for at least ten consecutive years. A candidacy independent of a party and its list is not possible by law, and the formation of electoral alliances is not permitted.
backgrounds
Political starting point
In the last parliamentary election in 2016 , Nur Otan was able to achieve 82 percent of the vote and win the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament with 84 mandates. Only two other parties were able to overcome the seven percent threshold and send members to parliament. In March 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned as President of Kazakhstan after almost 30 years. His successor, Qassym-Shomart Toqayev , initially only took up the post of President on a provisional basis , but was confirmed in office in the early election in June 2019 . But even if Toqayev is the country's president, major political changes are unlikely, as Nazarbayev continues to control large parts of politics in the background. Although he is no longer president of the country, he still holds important positions in government and politics. He remains chairman of the Security Council, chairman of the Constitutional Council and party chairman of Nur Otan; next to it he bears the title “leader of the nation”. On his inauguration, Toqayev also promised to continue Nazarbayev's policies and reform plans. Nazarbayev's daughter Darigha Nazarbayeva was also appointed chairman of the Senate ; Surprisingly, she was released from this post in May 2020.
During his presidency so far, Toqayev implemented some political reform projects. The requirement to authorize public protests has been abolished, the formation of political parties has been made easier, and penalties for hate speech and defamation have been reduced. These reforms loosen some of the restrictions that were often used in the past to silence critics of government. Notwithstanding these reliefs, Kazakhstan is still considered an authoritarian state. The cautious changes were also seen by observers as an attempt to calm the population after a year of profound political changes and to strengthen Toqayev's reputation in the country.
Situation of the opposition
Even if Toqayev implemented some reform projects within the last year, opposition activities are still severely restricted by the authorities. Although the barriers to registering parties have been lowered, the process is still the sole responsibility of the Kazakh Ministry of Justice. Between October 2019 and 2020, a total of eight groups submitted their documents to the ministry for approval as a party. According to media reports, all of these groups have been denied registration as a party. The authorities branded activists from the Democratic Election of Kazakhstan and Koshe Party organizations as extremists; both are banned in the country as well. Human rights activists said that over 100 people were convicted of alleged membership in a banned organization in the months leading up to the election. In early December, several international human rights organizations (including Amnesty International ) accused the Kazakh authorities of putting pressure on Kazakh human rights organizations through fabricated tax offenses. Since mid-October, at least 13 organizations have been informed that they had incorrectly filled in documents about declaring income from abroad; a version of a law introduced and heavily criticized in 2016.
In the two months leading up to the election, there were several cases of opposition activists being arrested on a variety of charges. In early November, a teacher was given a suspended sentence on charges of extremism for posting videos on social media of demonstrations by the banned organization, Democratic Election of Kazakhstan. In mid-November, a blogger and journalist was placed under house arrest for criticizing the authorities' efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in a post on Facebook . She was then accused of supporting the Democratic Election Organization of Kazakhstan. A court eventually ordered that she be admitted to a mental health clinic to check her mental health. At the end of December, another activist was admitted to a psychiatric clinic against his will after the man in a wheelchair tore down an election poster for the ruling Nur Otan in Aqtöbe . Human rights activists criticized this as part of a campaign by Nur Otan to silence activists before the election.
Parties
Toqayev announced parliamentary elections on October 21, 2020 for January 10 of next year. Registration of parties to vote with the Central Electoral Commission of Kazakhstan began on November 10th and ended on November 30th. Only parties that are officially registered with the authorities can stand for election. Of the only six parties allowed nationwide, five have submitted their party lists to the electoral commission. These are Nur Otan , Aq Jol , the People's Party of Kazakhstan (QHP; Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan until 2020 ), the Democratic Patriotic People's Party Auyl and Adal (until 2020 Birlik ). All parties are considered pro-government.
| Political party | Alignment | Party leader | Candidates | 2016 election results | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nur Otan ("Light of the Fatherland") | Centrism | Nursultan Nazarbayev | 126 | 82.20% (84 seats) | |
| People's Party of Kazakhstan | socialism | Aiqyn Qongyrow | 113 | 7.18% (7 seats) | |
| Democratic Party Aq Jol ("Enlightened Path") | liberalism | Asat Peruaschew | 38 | 7.14% (7 seats) | |
| Democratic Patriotic People's Party Auyl ("Village") | Agrarianism | Ali Bektayev | 19th | 2.01% (0 seats) | |
| Adal ("honesty") | Eco-socialism | Serik Sultanghali | 16 | 0.29% (0 seats) | |
The National Social Democratic Party Asat , which describes itself as the only opposition party in Kazakhstan, originally announced its intention to participate in the election. On November 27, however, the party leadership announced that it would boycott this parliamentary election as well, as conditions in the country had not changed despite Toqayev's reforms. A call by Muchtar Äbljasow , a prominent government critic living abroad , is likely to have contributed significantly to this . He described it as a party that was controlled by the government and only served to make the upcoming election appear fair and democratic. He called for the party to be voted in order to expose it, expose electoral fraud and push the ruling party Nur Otan below 50 percent of the vote.
Result
Preliminary final result:
| Political party | be right | proportion of | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Only Otan | 71.09% | |||
| Democratic Party Aq Jol | 10.95% | |||
| People's Party of Kazakhstan | 9.10% | |||
| Democratic Patriotic People's Party Auyl | 5.29% | |||
| Adal | 3.57% | |||
| Total (turnout 63.3%) | 100.00% | 98 | ||
Web links
- OSCE : Limited Election Observation Mission, Republic of Kazakhstan, Parliamentary Elections, 10 January 2021 (PDF)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information message on preliminary results of the regular elections of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the VII convocation. election.gov.kz, accessed January 11, 2021.
- ^ Lack of real competition and limitations to fundamental freedoms left voters without genuine choice in Kazakhstan's parliamentary elections, international observers say. osce.org, accessed January 11, 2021.
- ↑ a b Letter information about the electoral system of the RK. Central Electoral Commission of Kazakhstan, accessed January 5, 2021 (English).
- ↑ a b Limited Election Observation Mission, Republic of Kazakhstan, Parliamentary Elections, 10 January 2021. OSCE, accessed on 5 January 2021 (PDF).
- ^ Joanna Lillis: Kazakhstan: A president called Tokayev. A future called Nursultan. In: eurasianet.org, accessed January 9, 2021.
- ↑ inauguration speech of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In: Kazakhstan Pravda , accessed January 9, 2021 (English).
- ^ Kazakhstan to liberalize rules on protests and political parties. In: Reuters, accessed January 9, 2021.
- ↑ Nurseit Niyazbekov: Democracy, the Tokayev Way. In: The Diplomat, accessed January 9, 2021.
- ↑ a b Kazakh Elections Under New President Looking A Lot Like Previous Votes Under Nazarbaev. In: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , accessed January 9, 2021.
- ↑ Kazakhstan Accused Of Using Baseless Tax Claims To Pressure Rights Groups. In: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , accessed January 10, 2021 (English).
- ↑ Kazakhstan Convicts Opposition Activist On Extremism Charges. In: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , accessed January 9, 2021.
- ↑ Kazakh Court Upholds Decision To Place Blogger In Psychiatric Clinic. In: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , accessed January 9, 2021.
- ↑ Kazakh Activist Placed In Psychiatric Clinic, Lawyer Warns Of Opposition Sweep Ahead Of Vote. In: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , accessed January 10, 2021 (English).
- ↑ a b Kazakh Opposition Figure Calls On Supporters To Vote To Expose 'Opposition' Party. In: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty , accessed January 9, 2021.
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