Abstract

Parliamentary elections in 2023 have become an important part of President K.-J. Tokayev’s political reforms. On the one hand, they were a response to the mass protests of January 2022, on the other hand, they were supposed to strengthen the position of the incumbent president and contribute to the creation of his “power vertical”. After the elections to the Senate held in January 2023, early elections to the lower house of parliament, the Mazhilis, were held in March of the same year. A characteristic feature of the 2023 elections was the low voter turnout, which indicated the electorate’s disillusionment with political parties. Some liberalization of the electoral process provided for by the new constitutional amendments expanded the range of parties included in the Mazhilis. Nevertheless, only one of the six parties represented in the new convocation, the All-National Social Democratic Party, can be conditionally classified as a systemic opposition.

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