ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) accredited 25 international observers for the upcoming elections to the Mazhilis, a lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament, and the maslikhats, local representative bodies, said CEC Secretary Mukhtar Yerman at a Feb. 2 CEC meeting in Astana.
CEC accredits international observers for the elections presented by the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Photo credit: BaigeNews.kz.
“As of today, 25 observers from one state and two international organizations have been submitted to the CEC from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for accreditation. One observer from Palestine is the ambassador of this country, 11 observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Inter-parliamentary Assembly, and 13 from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR),” said Yerman.
Kazakhstan will have elections of deputies to the Mazhillis on March 19, with seven registered political parties allowed to participate, and on the same day, the elections of deputies to the maslikhats.
The candidates’ registration began on Jan. 20 and will end at 6 p.m. local Astana time on Feb. 18. Following registration, the election campaign will run until midnight on March 18. The following day, March 18, is a day of silence. The CEC will have ten days following the election on March 19 to announce the results.
For the first time since 2004, 29 deputies out of 98 will be elected in single-mandate constituencies, while 69 will be elected from party lists under the proportional representation model from a single nationwide constituency.
