ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s election authorities say President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party has won 82.15 percent of the votes in the March 20 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
According to preliminary results, two other parties allied with Nazarbayev — the Communist People’s Party and Ak Zhol — passed the 7 percent threshold needed to win seats in the 107-seat Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament.
That means that the legislature will include the same three parties as before.
Two other parties loyal to Nazarbayev — the agrarian party Auyl (Village) and environmentalists in Birlik (Unity) — and the opposition Nationwide Social-Democratic Party won less than 7 percent each.
Nazarbayev congratulated his party on March 21, saying the people of Kazakhstan had “once again shown confidence in our policy, the programs and platforms declared by Nur Otan.”
On March 20, after casting his ballot in the capital Astana, Nazarbayev called on other countries “not to rush” Kazakhstan on the path toward democracy.
He told reporters at the polling station in Astana that Kazakhstan “is Asia,” and that it had “different relationships — family relationships, a different religion and different opportunities between people.”
The parliamentary elections were held after the Mazhilis had asked Nazarbayev on January 13 for its early dissolution, explaining the move as a necessity to tackle new challenges caused by the economic crisis faced by Kazakhstan’s economy.
The Mazhilis’s term was due to end in the fall.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections have fallen short of its own commitments for democratic elections.
“Kazakhstan still has a long way to go towards fulfilling its election commitments, although some progress was noted,” Marietta Tidei, the OSCE special coordinator for election observation, said on March 21.
None of the elections held in Kazakhstan since its independence from the Soviet Union in December 1991 have ever been deemed as free or fair by Western countries or international observers.
