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1 1 (January 22, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveblk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional *. Research Service informing the legist ive debate since 1914____________________ Parliamentary Elections in Kazakhstan January 22, 2021 Kazakhstan, a U.S. partner in areas such as regional security, counterterrorism, and nuclear nonproliferation, held parliamentary elections on January 10, 2021. According to the official tally, the ruling Nur Otan party won 71% of the vote, followed by Ak Zhol (11%) and the People's Party of Kazakhstan (9%), granting each party 76, 12, and 10 seats, respectively, in the lower house of parliament. Two other parties, Auyl (5%) and Adal (4%), did not meet the 7% threshold to secure parliamentary mandates. No opposition parties participated in the elections, and the results yield a seat distribution broadly similar to the previous convocation of parliament, which included the same three parties. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that the elections lacked genuine competition, noting that the electoral contest highlighted the necessity of the government's promised reform program. Kazakhstan's authoritarian government has touted recent legislative changes as furthering the democratization and modernization of the country's political system. Critics argue, however, that these initiatives remain largely superficial. Kazakhstan is a presidential republic with power heavily concentrated in the executive. Although constitutional amendments passed in 2017 devolved some powers to the legislature, the dominant Nur Otan party is closely aligned with the executive branch. The bicameral parliament comprises a 49- member Senate, designed to be nonpartisan, in which 34 senators are indirectly elected and 15 are appointed by the president, and a 107-member lower chamber, the Majilis. Nine Majilis deputies are selected by the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK), a constitutional body representing the interests of Kazakhstan's various ethnic groups. The remaining 98 members are directly elected via a closed-list proportional system in a single nationwide constituency. Parliamentary seats are allocated to parties rather than to specific candidates, and party authorities are not bound by the order of their party list in deciding which candidates will take up a mandate in the Majilis. Of the six parties legally registered in Kazakhstan, five participated in the January electoral contest; all support the government. The All- National Social-Democratic Party (OSDP) decided to boycott the elections after Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive former bank executive and vocal critic of Kazakhstan's government, called on his supporters to vote for the party. Ablyazov's political movement, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, was banned as extremist in 2018. Analysts speculate that the OSDP wanted to avoid a toxic association with Ablyazov. These were the first parliamentary elections held since the unexpected 2019 resignation of Kazakhstan's longtime leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had served as president since the country became Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11581 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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