Citizens of energy-rich Kazakhstan went to the polls yesterday, in an early parliamentary election expected to provide a commanding majority for aging Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan party.
Close to 10 million people were eligible to vote in the ballot, held early amid economic gloom in the Central Asian state and featuring six parties mostly supportive of the country’s Russia-aligned leader.
Nazarbayev, 75, has ruled Kazakhstan virtually unopposed since before independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 — and has not designated a successor.
Analysts said the parties competing in the vote lack coherent ideologies or manifestoes, and exist to provide democratic window-dressing in the authoritarian state rocked by low oil prices.
“These are zombie parties,” Almaty-based nongovernmental organization Risk Assessment Group director Dosym Satpayev told reporters.
“They take up space and make announcements, but principally do not have any particular sort of platform,” he added.
Nazarbayev was re-elected with nearly 98 percent of the vote in a snap presidential election last year.
In addition to Nur Otan, two other parties from the outgoing pro-government legislature are competing — the Communist People’s Party and Ak Zhol (“Bright Path”).
Of the three remaining parties, both Auyl (“Village”), which focuses on agrarian issues, and pro-green Birlik are loyal to Nazarbayev.
The Nationwide Social Democratic Party claims the mantle of the opposition.
Standing in line to vote in the capital, Astana, Maral Akimbaeva, 27, a worker for a state company, said she would “probably” vote for Nur Otan.
“If I am honest, I don’t see any difference between the parties. They all say the same thing,” she told reporters.
Bolat Karabayev, a private entrepreneur, said he would not be voting.
‘DISAPPOINTED’
“I am disappointed by these parliamentarians. I don’t think they can solve our problems. Policy is made by the president’s office at any rate,” he told reporters.
Kazakh electoral law determines at least two parties must take their places in the 107-member legislature, even if one of them does not surpass the 7 percent vote threshold.
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