Seven parties and no independent candidates. Kazakhstan elects the Kurultay

145 seats in the new parliament were distributed among party lists: independent candidates cannot participate, and all seven permitted parties support Tokayev's policy, writes the BBC.

Two Chambers Instead of One

More than 12.5 million voters are registered to participate in the elections for the Kurultay — the new parliament, which will operate for the next five years, including during the next presidential elections.

Most polling stations inside the country opened at 7:00 local time, voting will continue until 20:00, but the first results will appear only after midnight — it is forbidden to publish exit poll results before this time in the country.

Unlike the previous parliament, which consisted of the Senate and the Mazhilis, the new one will have only one chamber with 145 deputies.

In these elections, the entire country represents a single electoral district, and voters cast their ballots not for specific candidates, but for party lists.

Proponents of this system say it will strengthen the role of parties and allow for the formation of stable factions. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recalls that international standards provide for the possibility of running independently of parties, and most of the mission's interlocutors who did not represent political associations considered the abolition of self-nomination a restriction on political participation.

This is a particularly sensitive issue for Kazakhstan, where opposition movements have been trying for years to register as parties, but none has managed to obtain official status and participate in elections. The current system does not leave opposition politicians even a theoretical path to nationwide elections.

Seven parties admitted to them are participating in the elections: Adilet, the Nationwide Social Democratic Party, the Kazakhstan Green Party Baitak, the People's Party of Kazakhstan, Auyl, Ak Zhol, and Respublica — all of them support the policy of the current president. The ballots also include a "against all" option.

For a party to enter parliament, it needs to gather at least 5% of the votes. After the elections, the leadership of each party that won seats in the Kurultay decides which of the candidates included in its list will receive deputy mandates.

The law requires that women, candidates younger than 35 years old, and people with disabilities collectively constitute at least 30% of the deputies from each party.

To Get Rid of the Burden

The largest list — 186 candidates — was presented by the new party "Adilet". It was founded in May, registered in early June, and already on June 12, the then most influential party in the country, "Amanat", decided to join it.

Amanat — the successor of the "Otan" party created by Nursultan Nazarbayev, later renamed "Nur Otan" — was the ruling party for almost three decades. Even after another name change, it maintained a strong association with the first president.

The meaning of the merger with the recently created "Adilet" was directly explained by deputy Yerlan Sairov: "The main task is to completely get rid of Nazarbayev's political burden."

Although Tokayev came to power in 2019 as Nazarbayev's successor, and independent experts called the first years after the transfer of the presidential office a period of dual power, the situation suddenly changed in January 2022 — when protests began in western Kazakhstan due to a sharp rise in liquefied gas prices, which quickly spread across the country and escalated into protests against social inequality, corruption, and the lingering influence of the former president's family.

In Almaty, initially peaceful protests escalated into riots, and Tokayev declared it an attempted coup d'état, ordering security forces to shoot to kill. According to official data, 238 people died during those January days, although the exact sequence of events and the role of various forces involved in the unrest have not yet been definitively established.

In the midst of the crisis, Tokayev replaced Nazarbayev as head of the Security Council, and at the end of January — as head of the ruling party. Relatives and allies of the former president began to lose state positions and influence.

Tokayev then promised to abandon the "super-presidential" model, strengthen the role of parliament in the country, and make the political system more competitive. Nevertheless, independent analysts note in conversations with the BBC that little has actually changed.

Kazakh political scientist Dosym Satpayev says:

"Tokayev is a hostage to this system; he is trying to prolong it, he is trying to preserve its main pillars. Because Nazarbayev, for example, had four such pillars on which he relied — family, security forces, oligarchs, and the nomenclature. Essentially, the same legs remain now."

In the new "Adilet" party, led by Aybek Dadebay, who headed the presidential administration until May, they openly state that they will become a political pillar of Tokayev's course. Many party representatives participated in the development of the new constitution.

New Constitution

The Kurultay is the result of a constitutional reform that Tokayev initiated in the autumn of 2025. Initially, it was only about amendments to the basic law, but within a few months, the project grew to a complete replacement of the 1995 constitution. The new constitution was adopted in a referendum in March 2026 and came into force on July 1.

The authorities presented the transition to a unicameral parliament as a way to make legislative work faster and strengthen the role of parties. The Kurultay will adopt laws, approve the budget, can express no confidence in the government, and gives consent to the appointment of the prime minister, vice president, judges of the Constitutional Court, and members of several state bodies.

At the same time, the constitution retains broad powers for the head of state. For example, the candidate for the chairman of the Kurultay is nominated by the president. He can also dissolve parliament if deputies repeatedly refuse to elect the proposed chairman or agree to certain presidential appointments.

The first session must be convened no later than 30 days after the publication of the election results. Within two months after the opening of the first session, Tokayev must appoint a vice president with the consent of the Kurultay. This position, abolished in 1996, is now returning: in the event of the president's early departure or death, it is the vice president who first assumes his powers until elections are held. Experts believe this is an excellent opportunity for Tokayev to name a successor in advance and avoid intra-elite power struggles.

"For Kazakhstan, the end of the Nazarbayev era turned into a catastrophe. The position of vice president is needed precisely to prevent a recurrence of similar problems and to protect the regime during a future transition," says Luca Anceschi, Professor of Eurasian Studies at the University of Glasgow and a specialist in authoritarian regimes and Central Asian politics. "The president will nominate a candidate, the Kurultay will approve him, and this person will be next in line. For now, we just don't know if we're talking about 2029 or 2036."

Thanks to the new constitution, Tokayev gained the opportunity to be elected president once again in 2029.

The current elections are taking place in an environment of restrictions on freedom of speech, says the OSCE ODIHR interim report: the Kazakh media market is under dominant state influence. Among the long-standing problems, ODIHR cites state influence on editorial policy, arrests and pressure on independent journalists and their families, lawsuits against media, removal of online materials, and delays in accreditation.

On August 14, the Committee to Protect Journalists and eight other local and international human rights organizations stated that before the elections, pressure on the press significantly intensified and reached an unprecedented level.

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