Kazakh President Dismisses Parliament, Calls Snap Parliamentary Elections

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev (file photo)

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has dismissed the parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis, and set March 19 as the date for snap parliamentary elections a year after the country was plunged into chaos amid deadly protests that revealed deep-seated anger over corruption and nepotism.

Toqaev's January 19 announcement comes two months after an early presidential election that consolidated his powers following the unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022 that weakened the position of his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Toqaev called for early presidential and parliamentary elections in September, saying a new mandate was needed to "maintain the momentum of reforms," following a June referendum that approved a move to start proceedings to strip Nazarbaev of his powerful leader-of-the-nation ("elbasy") status.

The November presidential vote was originally due in 2024 and parliamentary elections in 2025.

Also in September, Toqaev replaced the oil-rich Central Asian state's system limiting presidents to two consecutive five-year terms with a single seven-year term. The constitutional changes were proposed by Toqaev as part of his campaign to create what he calls a "new" Kazakhstan.

Toqaev has called his reforms an important step to shift Kazakhstan from a "super-presidential form of government to a presidential republic with a strong parliament."

Toqaev has been openly distancing himself from Nazarbaev, who stepped down in 2019 after nearly three decades in power and named longtime ally Toqaev as his successor.

Nazarbaev and his clan continued to influence domestic and foreign policy until early January last year, when protests in the country's west against fuel price hikes turned into mass anti-government protests across the former Soviet republic that ended with violent clashes between law enforcement and protesters, leaving at least 238 people dead.

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Many in Kazakhstan have said Toqaev's reforms haven’t changed the nature of the authoritarian regime and have failed to remove any significant power that the president's office holds.

In the wake of Toqaev-initiated changes, several groups who wanted to register new political parties, such as the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan; Forward, Kazakhstan; Honest Service To People; Our Right; Free People; People's Choice; and People's Pillar, have complained that authorities rejected their applications for reasons that weren't clear.