ASTANA – Six parties were elected to the Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament, on March 19, out of seven parties that participated in the election, according to the final results announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) at a March 27 meeting.
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These six parties received enough votes to pass the required five percent threshold to gain seats in Parliament.
Amanat party won a majority with 53.9 percent or 3,431,510 votes, Auyl People’s Patriotic Democratic Party received 10.9 percent or 693,938 votes, Respublica party – 8.59 percent or 547,154 votes, Aq Jol Democratic Party – 8.41 percent or 535,139 votes, People’s Party of Kazakhstan – 6.8 percent or 432,920 votes, and National Social Democratic Party – 5.2 percent or 331,058 votes.
Baytaq received only 2.3 percent. Nearly 3.9 percent, or 248,291 voters, chose the ‘against all’ option on the ballot.
Based on these results, the Amanat party will have 40 seats in the Mazhilis, the Auyl party – eight seats, the Respublica party – six seats, the People’s Party – five seats, Aq Jol party – six seats, and the National Social Democratic Party – four seats.
Some 6,366,441 people out of more than 12 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the Mazhilis and maslikhat (local representative body) election on March 19, hitting a voter turnout of over 54 percent.
The election on March 19 took place under the new rules stemming from the changes to the Constitution adopted last year.
In January, 20 deputies from 17 regions and cities of Astana, Almaty, and Shymkent were elected to the Senate, an upper chamber of the Kazakh Parliament.
