Local elections are set to be held in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

on 19 March 2023 to elect a total of 3,415 seats to 223 mäslihats (local assemblies) across all regions of Kazakhstan. The local elections will be held alongside 2023 legislative elections and were held under the basis of

mixed-member majoritarian representation Mixed member majoritarian representation (MMM) is type of a mixed electoral system combining majoritarian and proportional methods, where the disproportional results of the ''majoritarian'' side of the system prevail over the ''proportional'' ...

, which for the first time since 2016 reinstated

single-member districts A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...

that were previously abolished in 2018. The local elections were initially announced by President

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly Tokayev ( kk, Қасым-Жомарт Кемелұлы Тоқаев, Qasym-Jomart Kemelūly Toqaev ; born 17 May 1953) is a Kazakh politician and diplomat who is currently serving as the President of Kazakhstan since 12 Ju ...

during the State of the Nation Address on 1 September 2022. He then signed a presidential decree on 19 January 2023 which dissolved the tenure of all mäslihats and set the election date.

Background

The 2021 local elections were previously held under the newly 2018 implemented

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be u ...

voting law, to which regional and district deputies were nominated by their respective parties as candidates within

electoral lists An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

while at the same time restricted independents from becoming deputies. From there, the ruling Nur Otan party (now Amanat) earned most of 3,083 seats in all levels of mäslihats (local assemblies), which was followed by the

Auyl People's Democratic Patriotic Party The "Auyl" People's Patriotic Democratic Party (, ''«Auyl» Halyqtyq-demokratialyq patriottyq partiasy''; AHDPP) or simply as "Auyl" HDPP, is a political party in Kazakhstan. It was originally founded by Gani Qaliev on 30 January 2000 as the "Auyl ...

(227 seats),

Aq Jol Democratic Party The Aq Jol Democratic Party ( kz, Ақ жол Демократиялық Партиясы, translit=Aq Jol Demokratialyq Partiasy, russian: Демократическая партия Казахстана «Ак жол», Demokraticheskaya partiya ...

(224 seats) and

Adal Adal may refer to: *A short form for Germanic names in ''aþala-'' (Old High German ''adal-''), "nobility, pedigree"; see Othalan ** Adál Maldonado (1948-2020), Puerto Rican artist **Adal Ramones (born 1969), Mexican television show host ** Adal ...

(24 seats). During legislative tenure of mäslihats, a share of deputies affiliated with ruling Amanat party slightly increased due to its merger with the Adal in April 2022, to which all Adal's control of 24 mandates were fully submerged to the Amanat. In the aftermath of the

2022 Kazakh unrest The 2022 Kazakh unrest, also known as Bloody January () or the January tragedy (), was a series of mass protests that began in Kazakhstan on 2 January 2022 after a sudden sharp increase in liquefied gas prices following the lifting of a governm ...

, President

in his March 2022 State of the Nation Address unveiled a series of reforms regarding changes to the structure of mäslihats by granting them more decision-making powers and localised influence, including the implementation of a mixed electoral system. Following a constitutional referendum in a September 2022 State of the Nation Address, Tokayev announced a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

for mäslihat deputies to take place in the first half of 2023 in parr with the

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ...

. He also noted that the local electoral system would be held under a new mechanism that included a return of

within the mäslihat compositions. After being reelected in November 2022, President Tokayev on 19 January 2023 signed a decree in officially dissolving the functions in all levels of mäslihats and scheduling the snap election date for 19 March.

References

{{Kazakhstan elections

Local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

Elections in Kazakhstan March 2023 events in Kazakhstan

Background

See also

References