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Nur Otan party wins majority of seats in Kazakhstan’s parliament

According to the Central Election Commission, the party of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won 84 mandates at early elections to the Majilis

© Vladimir Bugayev/TASS Archive

ASTANA, March 22. /TASS/. The Nur Otan party has won the majority in the lower house (Majilis) of the parliament of Kazakhstan. According to the final results of the voting announced on Tuesday by the country’s Central Election Commission, the party of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won 84 mandates at early elections to the Majilis.

According to the results of the elections held on Sunday, the Ak Zhol party that has won seven mandates and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan that has also got seven mandates, will also be represented in the republic’s parliament.

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The early elections to the Majilis ended in Kazakhstan on Sunday, March 20. The voter turnout at 9,840 polling stations in the country and 65 — abroad, was record-high among similar campaigns conducted previously.

The head of the SCO monitoring mission, Aziz Nasirov, said on Monday that "the elections were open, free and democratic," adding that "no violations of the electoral legislation were registered."

"The election is currently being held freely, in a quiet atmosphere, at rather high turnout and in full accordance with the constitution of Kazakhstan," the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) monitoring mission said during the polls.

Other foreign observers share the opinion of the CIS and SCO monitoring missions. Lithuanian observers pointed out that they saw "no violations", adding the mission was "pleasantly surprised with high voter turnout."

A total of 286 observers of the mission of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE monitored the election.

"It is clear that Kazakhstan still has a long way to go towards fulfilling its election commitments, although some progress was noted," Marietta Tidei, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Coordinator for the election observation, said on Monday.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov said they "will take into account all the assessments and recommendations." "We are a young country and we know that our political institutes are developing," the minister said.

The Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan said 817 foreign observers monitored the polls.

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Kazakhstan Elections

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