The Kurultai opened on Aug. 28, replacing the Mazhilis and the Senate under the constitution that took effect July 1. Its members were elected on Aug. 23 in the first national vote held under that constitution.
Adilet took 110 of the 145 seats on 71.17 percent of the vote. The party was registered on June 1 and absorbed Amanat, which had governed the outgoing lower house.
Four other parties cleared the 5 percent threshold, according to Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission. Auyl took 10 seats on 6.26 percent, Respublica nine on 5.56 percent, Ak Zhol eight on 5.21 percent and the Nationwide Social Democratic Party eight on 5.11 percent.
The People's Party of Kazakhstan, which won 6.8 percent in 2023, dropped to 3.11 percent and lost every seat. Baitaq took 1.07 percent. The against all option drew 2.51 percent, more than either party.
Turnout was 74.08 percent of an electorate of 12,623,289, against 54.21 percent at the last parliamentary election in 2023.
Women hold 49 seats, or 33.8 percent, compared with 18 of 98 in the old Mazhilis. Eighteen deputies fall into the youth category and members range in age from 27 to 65, according to figures released by the Kazakh government.
"This stage is not a time for empty promises, false speeches and populist slogans," President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told the deputies at the opening session. "Our society is reaching maturity."
The international observation mission for the election was made up of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights together with the OSCE and Council of Europe parliamentary assemblies.
It found the election technically well prepared but held in an environment lacking political pluralism. Political choice was narrowed because all seven contesting parties supported the president's policies, the mission said, and Adilet had an undue advantage.
The same statement described the campaign as orderly and said the parties were given equal campaign conditions.
Tokayev nominated Aibek Dadebay as speaker and deputies approved him. Dadebay founded Adilet in May, days after stepping down as head of the presidential executive office.
On Monday the chamber confirmed Erlan Karin as vice president, a post created by the new constitution, with 141 of 145 deputies voting in favor. Karin has advised Tokayev since 2019 and served as state counselor.
Deputies also approved the reappointment of Olzhas Bektenov as prime minister.
Adilet holds more than two thirds of the seats, enough to amend the constitution on its own.
"The party that secured the support of the largest number of voters won the election and formed a constitutional majority in the Kurultai," Tokayev said. "High responsibility therefore rests on this party, and we associate particular hopes with it."
The legislative program he set out for the first session covers bringing sectoral law into line with the new constitution, a government bill barring children under 16 from registering on social media, and a Golden Visa aimed at attracting foreign specialists and capital.
Deputies are also to overhaul migration policy, pass measures on energy resilience and alternative energy, and draft a law on comprehensive support for children with disabilities.
He asked them to use artificial intelligence in drafting legislation and to adopt an E-Parliament system, while warning that technology cannot replace legal expertise.
"States, especially large countries, have essentially stopped trusting one another, which has had a damaging effect on the work of the UN and its institutions," he said. "The UN Security Council has ceased to carry out the mission entrusted to it of ensuring global and regional peace, stability and security."
He said regional organizations and what are commonly called middle powers had become more prominent, and placed Kazakhstan in that category. He also noted a forecast that artificial intelligence tools would replace nuclear weapons within the foreseeable future.
The pace and scale of the reforms had reached the point of irreversibility, he said, adding, "Simply put, there is no reverse gear."
"Our history and literature are not a chronicle of endless victims, suffering and tragedies," he said near the end of the address. "The suffering our people endured cannot be the foundation of our national identity."
Tokayev said the Kazakhstan Halyk Kenesi, or People's Council, will be formed in the second half of September as the country's first supreme consultative body, with the right to initiate legislation.
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