ALMATY: Polling stations opened in Kazakstan at 7:00 am on Sunday for snap legislative elections. AFP reported that polling stations opened in Almaty and Astana, the nation’s major cities. About 12 million voters will cast ballots in elections that could see independent candidates arrive in the parliament currently composed of political parties loyal to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Parliamentary Elections in Kazakhstan
The election comes on the 3rd anniversary of the resignation as president of Nursultan Nazarbayev. He had led the Central Asian country since independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. His successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was likely to continue Nazarbayev’s legacy and even renamed the country’s capital as Nur-Sultan in his honor.
But Kazakstan’s political landscape changed evidently following a wave of violence in 2022 when provincial protests primarily sparked by a fuel price hike engulfed other parts of the country, particularly the commercial capital, Almaty. Over 220 people, mostly protesters, died in the political unrest.
Amid the countrywide violence, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev removed Nazarbayev from his powerful office as chief of the national security council. He also restored the capital’s old name of Astana, and the parliament revoked a law granting Nursultan Nazarbayev and his family protection from the trial.
