ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- As expected, the ruling Amanat party won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan earlier this month, official results show, in a vote the Central Election Commission said had several "minor" violations but that some opposition politicians claimed was marred by issues.
The Central Election Commission said on March 27 that Amanat received 53.9 percent of the votes to win an allocation of 40 seats of the 69 seats on offer in parliament through the party list distribution system. In addition, according to the commission, candidates nominated by Amanat won 22 of the 29 seats on offer in single-mandate contests.
The March 19 vote followed a referendum in June 2022 that marked the end of special privileges for long-reigning former leader Nursultan Nazarbaev and snap presidential elections in November that handed 69-year-old incumbent Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev a fresh seven-year presidential term.
It was the first vote since 2004 in which candidates without party affiliations could stand for seats in the lower house, called the Mazhilis, as part of a package of electoral reforms initiated by Toqaev in the wake of the unrest in January 2022 that left at least 238 people dead.
The second-place Auyl party won eight seats in the party-list distribution after it took 10.9 percent of the votes; the Respublika party won six seats with 8.59 percent; the Ak Zhol party won six seats with 8.41 percent; the People's Party of Kazakhstan won five seats with 6.8 percent; and four mandates were handed to the opposition Nationwide Social Democratic Party (JSDP), which had 5.2 percent of the votes.
The return of single-mandate district races added some dynamism to a ballot dominated by system candidates in a country where no elections have been deemed free or fair by international election monitors since Kazakhstan gained independence more than 30 years ago.
But several opposition-minded figures were excluded from races at the parliament and city council level on administrative pretexts, while others complained of government pressure on their campaigns.
Several candidates said after the elections that they would not recognize the results because of "various violations" of voting laws and that they would launch a court appeal because "the votes of independent candidates were stolen."
The various violations include improper counting of ballots and government pressure on public employees to vote for certain parties.
The Oraganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) noted after the vote that "limits on the exercise of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms remain and some political groups continue to be prevented from participating as political parties in elections."
While the voting "was organized in a smooth manner overall," the OSCE said "significant procedural irregularities were observed."
Of the seven parties to compete in the elections, the most well-established is the ruling Amanat party, a renamed version of the Nur Otan party led by Nazarbaev, who remained powerful even after stepping down and allowing Toqaev to succeed him in 2019.
Last year’s crisis effectively ended the political career of Nazarbaev, who relinquished his remaining positions to Toqaev, while denying rumors of a rift with his protege.
