ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s capital hosted the extraordinary congress of the Communist People’ Party (CPP) of Kazakhstan on Feb. 2. The congress delegates announced their programme for the March 20 general election and approved the list of the party’s nominees, which includes 22 names. Among them are deputies of the previous convocation of the Mazhilis (lower house of the Kazakh Parliament) Zhambyl Akhmetbekov, Aikyn Konurov and Vladislav Kosarev, as well as secretary of Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan Turgun Syzdykov, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the country’s latest presidential election in April 2015, among others.
“Our party was one of the initiators of the early election to the Mazhilis and maslikhats, which was later supported by President Nursultan Nazarbayev,” said Kosarev, who is also the chairman of the party. “We have a challenging task that is to conduct a strong pre-election campaign. We need to meet the expectations of the voters and to enter the highest legislative body of the country, with new forces and ideas to strengthen the unity of the country.”
Another candidate of the party Tursunbek Omurzakov confirmed it looked to improve on its relative success at the latest parliamentary election in January 2012 by surpassing the 7 percent threshold and returning to the Mazhilis.
Earlier, Nur Otan, Auyl and Nationwide Social Democratic Party have announced their participation in the upcoming election and lists of their candidates.
The early election for the lower house of parliament is scheduled for March 20. On the same day, the election to maslikhats (local consultative councils) will take place.
