Kazakhstan’s first Kurultai election will test its new political system

Kazakhstan will hold its first election for the new Kurultai on August 23, weeks after a constitutional overhaul replaced the former bicameral Parliament with a 145-seat unicameral legislature.

The vote is an early parliamentary election, not a referendum. It will show how Kazakhstan’s redesigned political system operates after the new Constitution took effect on July 1, 2026, ended the previous Parliament’s mandate and established the Kurultai as the country’s highest representative body exercising legislative power.

What changed

The Kurultai will be elected through a single nationwide electoral district under proportional representation. Its 145 deputies will serve five-year terms, according to Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission and the country’s constitutional framework.

That means voters are not simply replacing one chamber of an existing legislature. They are choosing the members of an entirely new national institution after Kazakhstan merged the former Parliament’s two-chamber structure into one body.

The constitutional transition also altered the balance among Kazakhstan’s governing institutions. Associated Press reporting says the new framework gives the president authority to appoint key officials with parliamentary approval, restores the vice presidency and creates a presidentially appointed People’s Council alongside the legislature. The AP has described the changes as strengthening President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s position.

Those changes make the Kurultai’s practical role an important question. The election will not, by itself, establish whether the new legislature will provide effective oversight or how competitive the broader political system will be.

Seven parties are on the ballot

On July 23, Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission said seven parties had registered lists containing a total of 545 candidates for the 145 seats. The ballot order is:

Adilet Party
Nationwide Social Democratic Party
Kazakhstan Green Party Baitaq
People’s Party of Kazakhstan
Auyl Party
Ak Zhol Democratic Party of Kazakhstan
Respublica Party

The commission said the party lists met legal requirements for the representation of women, young people and people with disabilities. It reported that those categories together accounted for 43.9% of candidates, including 172 women, 74 candidates under age 35 and 19 people with disabilities.

The figures describe the registered lists; they do not establish that all seven parties represent the same political positions or that the election guarantees competitive pluralism.

How the election is being organized

Campaigning began at 6:01 p.m. local time on July 23, according to the Central Election Commission. Local authorities have prepared more than 8,000 locations for campaign materials and about 4,500 venues for meetings with voters.

Voter-list administration will be another practical test. The commission said the voter register contained 12,561,644 permanently registered citizens as of July 1, with 10,427 polling stations planned, including 82 stations abroad in 64 countries. Voters are scheduled to be able to review the lists from August 7.

The commission also said accreditation of observers from foreign states and international organizations will continue through August 17. Campaigning is prohibited on election day and the preceding day, while publication of election polls and forecasts is barred during the five days before voting and on election day.

What OSCE/ODIHR will examine

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, known as OSCE/ODIHR, opened its election observation mission on July 10.

The mission is led by Ambassador Vincent Piket and includes 12 core experts based in Astana and 22 long-term observers deployed around the country. OSCE/ODIHR plans to request 300 short-term observers from participating states for election-day observation.

Its mandate covers more than the opening of polling stations, voting and counting. Observers will assess election legislation and administration, voter and candidate registration, campaign conditions, online and social-media activity, media coverage, campaign-finance transparency, efforts to address disinformation and interference, and the resolution of election-related disputes.

OSCE/ODIHR says it will issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference on August 24, the day after voting. That will be an initial assessment, not the final report on the entire electoral process.

Why the vote matters

The wider institutional stakes include the presidency’s relationship with the new legislature. AP reported in July that Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court ruled Tokayev could seek another seven-year term after the constitutional changes reset how his current tenure is counted. That context makes the Kurultai election relevant not only to lawmaking but also to the country’s developing system of checks and balances.

The central democratic question is whether the new Kurultai can exercise meaningful legislative and oversight authority within a constitutional system that gives the presidency substantial influence. The answer will depend on more than the final seat totals: campaign access, media conditions, voter-list administration, campaign finance, online information and the handling of complaints will all matter.

For voters, the immediate choice is among seven registered party lists competing for 145 seats on August 23. For Kazakhstan’s institutions, the election is the first operational test of the political system created by the Constitution that took effect on July 1.

Sources

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