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Adilet wins Kurultai vote
Kazakhstan held its first election for the new unicameral Kurultai on Sunday, with exit polls published by Kazakh state media projecting the pro-government Adilet party winning between 70 percent and 72 percent of the vote.
“between 70 percent and 72 percent of the vote”
The vote was triggered by the adoption of a new constitution earlier this year that streamlines parliament from two chambers into one, and the Supreme Court said last month that the new constitution allowed President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to run for a fresh seven-year term.
In the capital, Astana, Tokayev told journalists it was too early to say whether he would seek another term and said he would announce his choice of vice president within the next seven to 10 days.
A separate set of exit-poll figures released by television put Adilet at between 70.7% and 72.3% and positioned the party for a commanding majority in the new 145-member unicameral Parliament, with preliminary figures not constituting official election results.
Opposition, observers, and media
The UA.NEWS report said opposition parties were not allowed to take part in the vote, while Deutsche Welle coverage described the election as a contest in which three other parties also surpassed the 5% threshold required to enter the Kurultai.
In the run-up to the election, Tokayev told journalists it was too early to say whether he would seek another term, and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly announced it would deploy nearly 80 parliamentarians and staff from about 30 countries to observe the vote.
The Associated Press quoted independent journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov saying, "In the run-up to these parliamentary elections, repression has intensified sharply," and he said the authorities want to silence media they do not control.
A separate AP account said authorities opened about 10 criminal cases against independent journalists and popular bloggers, and it described the latest case involving Akhmedyarov and charges of "spreading false information" after he published a list of Kazakh citizens fighting in Ukraine.
Power reset and what’s next
Kazakhstan’s constitutional overhaul, which shifted from a dual-chamber parliament to a single-chamber one, is expected to further strengthen President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s grip on power, with the election widely anticipated to reinforce his control.
“opening the door for him to run for another seven-year term”
The AP account said last month Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court ruled that the amendments effectively restarted Tokayev’s previous terms, opening the door for him to run for another seven-year term, while Al Jazeera described the election as taking place amid pressure on press freedom and a reset of presidential term limits.
Tokayev framed the vote as a political turning point, telling voters, "Undoubtedly, these elections will be remembered as perhaps the most interesting in our country’s history," and he said the strategy was to transform Kazakhstan into a truly developed state.
The Astana Times said the Central Election Commission is expected to announce preliminary results after ballots have been counted, and it described the election as determining the composition of the 145-member Kurultai under a proportional party-list system with parties needing at least 5% of the vote to qualify for seats.