SEOUL, August 23 (AJP) - The first voter reached the Kazakh embassy in Seoul at 7 a.m. Sunday, hours before most of the roughly 300 Kazakh nationals eligible to cast ballots in South Korea would make their way to the compound to help choose their country's new parliament.
She was Azhar Karimzhanova, 23, a student at Korea University, according to Rakhymzhan Altynbay, an official at the embassy. By 1:30 p.m., Altynbay said, about 70 people had voted.
That is roughly a quarter of the eligible electorate in the country, and they kept arriving through the morning. Some brought children. Some came with family. A few stopped to greet one another at the gate before going in.
The Seoul station is one of 79 the Central Election Commission opened at Kazakh diplomatic missions in 61 countries. Voters abroad receive the same ballot as those at home, and there is no postal or online option.
At stake are all 145 seats of the Kurultai, the single chamber that replaced the Senate and the Mazhilis when a new constitution took effect July 1. Seven parties are running 545 candidates in one nationwide district. Self-nomination is not allowed.
Ulanbek Aueskhan came on his day off with his five-year-old son.
He has lived in South Korea for more than 10 years, took his bachelor's degree through his doctorate here, and works as a researcher at Samsung Electronics. He said he brought the boy deliberately.
"I wanted to show him," Aueskhan said. "Our country does this. He should see it while he is young, and experience it directly."
Voting from abroad, he said, was a way of staying useful to a country he no longer lives in.
"We are outside the country, but there is still a contribution to make," he said. "Even from Korea, we can support Kazakhstan."
Asked what the new chamber would change, he pointed to the merger itself.
"Until now there were the Senate and the Mazhilis," he said. "Now they are combining, so decisions can be made faster."
Alisher Saduakas, 28, arrived with him. They are colleagues, both researchers at Samsung Electronics, and Saduakas lives in Suwon.
He has been in South Korea for 10 years and had never voted in his life.
"I had no plans to vote," he said. "Ulanbek said we should come and do it together. This is the first time, and it feels good."
What changed, he said, was that he can now follow what is happening at home.
"There was no Kurultai before, and things were complicated," Saduakas said. "Now I can see how it works on social media, what is moving in Kazakhstan. So I thought I could support it too."
Kazakhstan's ambassador to South Korea, Asset Issenali, who presented his credentials on July 22, was at the embassy as voters came through.
He said the country was in the middle of political and economic transformation, and that the new chamber would let it pass legislation to make economic reform more effective.
"This will be a stepping stone," Issenali said.
Polls close in Kazakhstan on Sunday evening. The commission has accredited 781 foreign and international observers, among them 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.
Aueskhan's son waited beside him while he marked his ballot.
"From a young age, here, you have to show them," his father said.
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