SEOUL, August 22 (AJP) - With one day to go before Kazakhstan chooses a new single-chamber parliament, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on citizens to turn out, casting Sunday's vote as the start of a fresh cycle of reform under a constitution that took effect seven weeks ago.
Tokayev issued the appeal in an address to the nation published Aug. 21 (local time), the final day on which campaigning was permitted. He called the election a truly historic event.
Voters choose all 145 seats of the Kurultai, the chamber that replaced the Mazhilis and the Senate when the new constitution came into force on July 1. Seven parties are fielding 545 candidates in a single nationwide district.
Seats go only to parties that clear five percent of valid votes. Self-nomination is not allowed. The Central Election Commission has registered 12,605,788 voters.
The constitution was approved in a referendum on March 15, with the Central Election Commission (CEC) reporting support at 87.15 percent on turnout of 73.12 percent. Tokayev calls it the People's Constitution, and in the address he tied Sunday's vote directly to it.
"With the entry into force of the People's Constitution, these elections will become the starting point of new reforms," he said, adding that they would open a new chapter in the country's modern history.
He said he had announced the election well in advance so that every party could prepare.
The campaign that followed was substantive, open, competitive and civilized, he said, and called that the general view among citizens.
Parties set out their programs at voter meetings, in the media, in nationwide televised debates and in arguments on social media, he said, giving people a chance to weigh competing visions of the country's future.
Adilet, which holds first place on the ballot, is running 186 candidates, more than double any rival list. The party was registered June 1 and absorbed Amanat, which took 53.9 percent in 2023 and held the largest bloc in the Mazhilis, after congresses of both parties approved the merger that month.
Tokayev named no party and endorsed no candidate.
He instead pointed to what he called a shift in the public conversation, with new faces and new arguments emerging.
He said he was particularly pleased that young people, professional associations and entrepreneurs had joined the debate, describing it as a sign of political renewal and crediting his own program of raising political culture and widening public participation in government.
"The new legislative body must become a common platform for constructive views and aspirations," he said, adding that the Kurultai would set a high tempo for the country's modernization.
He placed that task against what he called unprecedented geopolitical tension and mounting global challenges. Kazakhstan had to hold to its strategy of becoming a genuinely developed state, he said, and faced difficult work to join the front rank of nations.
Domestic and international observers followed the campaign and will be present at polling stations on Sunday, he said.
The CEC had accredited 781 foreign and international observers as of Aug. 17. They include 39 long-term and 208 short-term monitors sent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe through its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The address ran on the last day campaigning was allowed. Aug. 22 is set aside as a day of electoral silence, and publication of opinion polls and forecasts has been barred since Aug. 18.
Tokayev closed by calling participation the highest expression of the popular will, and noted that millions of people around the world are still fighting for the right to vote.
He ended on a Kazakh proverb, "Kelisip pishken ton kelte bolmas," which he glossed as meaning that a decision taken together is the wisest.
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