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Kazakhstan’s new parliament to open first session Jan 20

Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the relevant decree

ASTANA, January 18 (Itar-Tass) — The lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament will open its first session on January 20 after the parliamentary elections last Sunday.

Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the relevant decree, the president’s press service said on Wednesday.

Nazarbayev’s aide Yermukhamet Yertysbayev said earlier soon after the elections the government will resign and then during a week the first session of the newly elected parliament will take place to form a new Cabinet.

“The head of state will nominate candidates for the post of prime minister and ministers that will be coordinated with the Nur Otan party that will form the government,” the aide said. He did not rule out that “the president may attract representatives of the party that came second in the election race.”

The ruling party Nur Otan led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev won an overwhelming victory getting 80.99 percent of votes. The democratic party Ak Zhol received 7.47 percent of votes and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan came third with 7.19 percent.

Another four parties running in the race gained no more than 2 percent of votes on the average.

The voter turnout was 75.45 percent.

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