Elections in Kazakhstan

File:KazakhBallotBox.jpg

Ballot boxes, Kazakh flag and state seal in an Astana polling place before the 2007 legislative elections.

Elections in Kazakhstan are held on a national level to elect a President and the Parliament, which is divided into two bodies, the Majilis (Lower House) and the Senate (Upper House). Local elections for maslihats (local representative bodies) are held every five years.<ref name=legison>Kazakhstan Template:Webarchive Legislation Online</ref>

Elections are administered by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

There are 7 legal political parties in Kazakhstan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Kazakhstan’s political opposition is the most developed in the region in terms of its organizational abilities and resources.<ref name="Demokratizatsiya">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Quotation needed

None of the elections held in Kazakhstan have been considered free or fair by Western countries or international observers<ref name="theguardian.com">Kazakhstan's long term president to run in snap election – again Template:Webarchive, The Guardian, 11 March 2015</ref> with issues noted including ballot tampering,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Rico Isaacs 94"/> multiple voting,<ref name="Rico Isaacs 94">Template:Cite book</ref> repression of opposition candidates<ref name="Rico Isaacs 89">Template:Cite book</ref> and press censorship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, robust reforms have been implemented since 2019 and the OSCE ODI stated in its post-2021 parliamentary election report that "candidates were able to campaign freely."<ref name="odihr-2021-report">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has deployed election monitors to Kazakhstan at the invitation of the government for observation of parliamentary and presidential elections since 1999.<ref name="osce1999">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Election procedures and technology

File:KazakhVotingBooth.jpg

Voting booths, each with an AIS "Sailau" touch-screen electronic voting machine.

Prior to the 2012 parliamentary elections, many Kazakh voters were offered a choice of voting on electronic voting machines or on paper ballots. At least some of the ballot boxes used in Kazakhstan are transparent in order to defend against ballot box stuffing. Each polling place was equipped with both a large ballot box and smaller mobile ballot boxes. The latter are designed to be carried, by poll-workers, to voters outside the polling place.<ref>Chapter 7 Template:Webarchive, Article 41, Paragraph 6, of the Kazakh Election Law Template:Webarchive, as amended, June 2007.</ref> This is an alternative to offering absentee ballots or proxy voting for voters with disabilities that prevent them from going to the polls.

Electronic voting in Kazakhstan is based on the AIS "Sailau" electronic voting system developed in Belarus and Kazakhstan. This system is best described as an indirect-recording electronic voting system, as opposed to the DRE voting machines that have been more widely studied.<ref>Douglas W. Jones, The Sailau E-Voting System, Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology Template:Webarchive, Michael Yard, ed., International Foundation for Electoral Systems Template:Webarchive, Sept. 2010; pages 74-95.</ref> In this system, the touch-screen voting terminal in the voting booth serves as a ballot marking device, recording selections on a smart card. The voting terminal itself retains no record of the vote after the voter takes the smart card. The voter then takes the smart card containing the cast ballot record to the computer at the registration table that serves as the electronic ballot box where the permanent record of the vote is retained and tabulated.

On November 16, 2011, Kuandyk Turgankulov, head of the Central Election Commission, said that the Sailau system would be discontinued because the voters prefer paper ballots, the political parties do not trust it, and the country lacks the funds required to update the system.<ref>Sailau e-system will not be used at Kazakhstan parliamentary elections in 2012 Template:Webarchive, Tengri News Template:Webarchive, Nov. 11, 2011.</ref>

Election financing

Candidates for elected office in Kazakhstan can receive state financial support to cover campaign costs.<ref name=elections1>Template:Cite news</ref> In Senate elections, each candidate receives about $2,170.

In Senate races, the state budget pays for each candidate’s 15-minute TV address (115 thousand tenge, approx. $303), 10 minutes on the radio (60 thousand tenge, approx. $158), 2 articles in the media (105 thousand tenge, approx. $276), hall rent for meeting with the voters (20 thousand tenge, approx. $53), publication of printed campaign materials (25 thousand tenge, approx. $66) and traveling (for Oblasts - 70 thousand tenge, approx. $184; for Astana and Almaty cities - 35 thousand tenge, approx. $92).

Observation

There have been several international election observation missions organised in Kazakhstan. The OSCE has observed the elections.

Elections	date	observing organisation	head of mission
early Majilis	March 20, 2016	ODIHR/OSCE<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Boris Frlec
early Majilis	March 20, 2016	executive committee/CIS	Sergey Lebedev
early presidential	April 26, 2015	ODIHR/OSCE<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Cornelia Jonker
early Majilis	January 15, 2012	ODIHR/OSCE<ref name="osce.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Miklós Haraszti
early senate	January 15, 2012	ODIHR/OSCE<ref name="osce.org"/>	Miklós Haraszti

Presidential elections

Template:See also Kazakhstan's president is elected by the people and serves a single seven-year term.

Term limits were removed for the incumbent Nursultan Nazarbayev on 18 May 2007, when parliament also voted to reduce the term length from seven to five years.<ref>Kazakh MPs lift presidency limit Template:Webarchive BBC News</ref>

Early presidential elections were called by President Nazarbayev and were held on April 26, 2015.<ref name=2015prezelection>Template:Cite news</ref> President Barack Obama sent a letter to President Nazarbayev congratulating him on his reelection in the April 26 election.<ref name=obamacongrats>Template:Cite news</ref>

After President Nazarbayev' resignation in March 2019,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> snap presidential elections were held on June 9, 2019 with former Senate Chair Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emerging as the winner.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In September 2022, the parliament approved changing the term length from five to seven years while lowering the amount of terms to one.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the same month, early presidential elections were called for 20 November 2022.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Parliamentary elections

The legislature, known as the Parliament (Parlamenti), has two chambers.

The Assembly (Mazhilis) has 98 members elected for a five-year term, in general elections, in the following way: 70% (69 deputies) from closed list party-list proportional representation allocated using the largest remainder method and 30% (29 deputies) from single-member districts that use the first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) method. There is a 5% electoral threshold.

The Senate has 50 members, 40 of whom are elected to six-year terms by delegates from the 17 provinces and three national cities, half of whom are elected every three years, and 10 are appointed by the President of Kazakhstan.

Municipal elections

Citizens for the first time voted to elect local officials on July 25, 2021. Officials were previously appointed to their positions.<ref name="25julyelections">Template:Cite news</ref>

International criticisms

As of March 2015, none of the elections held in Kazakhstan have been considered free or fair by Western countries or international observers.<ref name="theguardian.com"/> The 1999 Presidential election attracted criticism from the United States and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) who considered that harassment and intimidation of opposition candidates and supporters and the disqualification of an opponent of Nazarbayev<ref>US criticises Kazakh Court decision Template:Webarchive, BBC News, 26 November 1998</ref> had made a meaningful election impossible. The OSCE criticised the 2011 presidential election, citing a lack of press freedom, transparency and competition.<ref>Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev wins re-election Template:Webarchive, BBC News, 4 April 2011</ref> Following the 2005 election, they noted a number of issues, including ballot tampering, multiple voting, intimidation and harassment of opposition candidates and their supporters, media bias and official restrictions on free expression.<ref>Observers criticise Kazakh president's re-election Template:Webarchive, The Observer, 5 December 2005</ref>

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

External links

• The Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan
• Kazakhstan Elections Adam Carr's Election Archive
• OSCE reports on Kazakhstani elections