Elections to the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan will be held on March 19. So far, more than 900 candidates have gathered to participate in the elections to the Majilis (Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan). The numbers were announced on February 9, 2023 at a meeting of the Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan. Edition REPUBLIC.KZ analyzed the candidates who can take the seats of parliamentarians after March 19.
Kazakhstan has a mixed system of elections (by party lines and single-mandate constituencies), the situation is as follows:
- party lists include 283 candidates,
- in single-member constituencies – 609 candidates.
In accordance with the country's legislation, seven political parties operating in Kazakhstan held congresses at the end of January and beginning of February, at which they decided on their candidate lists and submitted them for registration to the Central Election Commission by February 8.
Whether they are registered will become known in ten days - while the CEC limited itself to the notification that the lists have been submitted and the personalities listed in them will be checked for compliance with the legal norms. Single-mandate candidates will be no less carefully checked. Therefore, it is possible that at the time of registration, which will end on February 18, these ranks may thin out.
Parties
Party "Amanat", excluded the president of the country from its ranks, but it has not ceased to be considered a party of power, since its chairman is the ex-speaker of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Erlan Koshanov, and its members are practically the entire political establishment of the country.
And the party itself allows us to think about ourselves in a similar way, because with its pre-election list it exceeded the number of possible seats: for 98 seats in the lower house of the parliament, "Amanat" nominated 90 candidates on the party list and 29 candidates in the majority constituencies, for a total of 119.
At the party's congress, its chairman Yerlan Koshanov said that the "party team", which is nominated to all representative bodies of the country, has been updated by 75%. Yes, among those running for Majilis, there are not many ex-deputies of the XNUMXth convocation. But this does not mean at all that the others are new faces, because among them you can see ex-Minister of Education Askhat Aimagambetov, blogger Galim Baituk, IT expert Rinat Zaitov (who promised, but never dared to create his party) and many other acquaintances .
People's Party of Kazakhstan approved a list of 52 candidates at its congress.
"Initially, there were more than 120 people on the list, we decided to shorten the list taking into account the real distribution of seats," said the head of the NEC Yermuhamet Ertysbayev. He also heads this list.
The second number is ex-wife Iryna Smirnova. The four also included the head of the Association of Mothers of Kazakhstan Gauhar Tanasheva and ex-deputy of the Majilis Oleksandr Milyutin. But the first deputy chairman of the party and ex-majorist Aikin Konurov is only in 31st place.
Yertysbaev himself said about his deputyship that if 35-40 of his party members enter the parliament, then he too will sit in the deputy chair. If this list consists of 10-15 people, then he will be ready to give up his deputyship, concentrating on party work.
Yertysbayev began his journey into politics precisely from the parliamentary seat, becoming a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the 1990th convocation in 1995. But he received the nickname "Nazarbayev nightingale" during his tenure as an adviser to President Nazarbayev. He held this position with short breaks three times: in 1998-2002, 2006-2008 and 2013-XNUMX.
In addition to the party list, the Communist Party sent 15 of its party members to the elections in single-mandate constituencies.
In the party list Democratic Party of Kazakhstan "Ak Zhol" 54 candidates for Majilismen entered. It was headed by the party leader Azat Peruashev, as well as his colleagues from the deputy workshop, Dania Yespaeva (she tried her hand at the presidential elections in 2019), Berik Duysembinov, Erlan Barlybaev, Kazibek Isa, Maksat Ramankulov, and Serik Yerubayev.
We can also mention in the list Serhii Utkin, a well-known lawyer in the country.
Speaking about his desire to go to the deputies on the party list, Azat Peruashev called it natural.
"I believe that the party leader is obliged to follow the party list. If the leader of the party is not nominated on the party list, it means that he does not trust the voter's choice, that the voter will vote for his party. This is a very alarming bell. I believe in my party," Peruashev said.
Kazakhs have "trusted" Peruashev since 2012 - that's when he, having become the head of "Ak Zhol" a year earlier, was elected as a deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament of the XNUMXth convocation and did not leave the deputy seat in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth convocations.
Another 24 residents of Akzholiv will compete for parliamentary seats in single-mandate constituencies.
У National Social Democratic Party the party list consists of 19 people, headed by ex-presidential candidate Nurlan Auesbaev. The party announced that Ayuesbaev's presidential program will form the basis of the party's pre-election program.
Party leader Askhat Rahimzhanov is also on the list of candidates. We will remind that he assumed the post of chairman not without a scandal. Before him, the famous journalist Yermurat Bapi was the head of the OSDP (although he held the position for only four months). At the 2019th extraordinary congress in September XNUMX, the delegates expressed a vote of no confidence in Bapi and withdrew it.
While the issue was being discussed, Yermurat Bapi announced his withdrawal, remembering about a "conspiracy" within the party, and about the fact that the fugitive oligarch Bergey Ryskaliev becomes its new "master".
OSDP did not take part in the previous parliamentary elections of 2021.
OSDP nominated six of its party members in single-mandate constituencies.
People's Democratic Patriotic Party "Auyl" decided to send 25 people to the Majilis based on party lists.
The former presidential candidate Zhiguli Dairabaev, who became the deputy chairman of "Avil" in December 2022, is number one in it. Dayrabayev has experience - he was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Kazakhstan of the 1990th convocation, elected in XNUMX.
Number two unexpectedly became Karakat Abden, who ran for the post of president in 2022. She joined the party a few days before the congress.
The general public became aware of MP Karakat Abden after the publication of her book "You are a Cossack. Be proud!" 160 life hacks for a young girl", issued within the framework of the Institute of "Noble Girls". The book was published in Kazakh and Russian languages. Most of them will go to the libraries of remote rural schools of the country.
Аvtor writes in the annotation to his book: "I wanted to tell girls that we have something to be proud of, show our uniqueness and encourage girls to carry themselves proudly in any country of the world. Kazakh girls have never pushed forward or against a man, as is customary in the West, and have not been fond of feminism. We don't need it."
It is noteworthy that the name of the chairman of Auil Ali Bektayev is not in the party list of candidates for deputies, nor among the single-mandate candidates, and the first deputy chairman Toleutai Rahimbekov decided to run for office under the majority system.
"Auyl" nominated nine candidates for single-mandate constituencies.
Kazakhstan Green Party "Baytak" , which received state registration in November 2022, entered the elections with the most modest list - only 18 people.
Meanwhile, despite its first elections, the party already has one of the ex-deputies in its ranks. Aizhan Skakova turned out to be like that.
As we wrote above, she recently left the membership of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and in the Majilis of the XNUMXth convocation she was a deputy from the People's Party. It must be said that in "Baytak" she turned out to be in her rightful place - an ecologist by education. Al-Farabi.
The head of the party, Azamathan Amirtai, decided to try his luck as a single-mandate candidate. He explained his desire by the fact that the party does not rely on one person, but works as a team.
According to the majority system, four "greens" will go to the elections.
Party "Respublica" another newcomer to the party field (she was registered less than a month ago - January 18, 2023) included 25 people in the party list.
Chairs in the parliament are intended to be occupied by party chairman, agribusiness entrepreneur Aidarbek Khodzhanazarov, co-chairman, producer and actor, and in the past - well-known KVNshchik Nurlan Koyanbaev, entrepreneur and blogger Beybit Alibek and a number of other iconic figures of Kazakhstani business.
Making a pre-election statement, Aidarbek Khodzhanazarov said that "republicans" are "from a different dough", "business people", "grew not from offices, but from the land". And he cheated, because he had a "cabinet" position in his career - deputy chairman of the board of JSC "National Managing Holding "KazAgro".
Four "republicans" decided to try their luck in single-mandate districts.
Self-promoters
According to the CEC, out of 609 candidates who intend to become deputies in single-mandate constituencies (a total of 29 constituencies), 525 are self-nominated.
If you can get acquainted with the party lists on official party resources, then you still need to search for lists of candidates by districts.
Journalism has seen REPUBLIC.KZ after visiting a number of websites of cities and regions, they found that the lists of self-nominated candidates can be read in advance in the official document - "Information on the nomination of candidates for deputies of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan in single-mandate territorial electoral districts".
Kazakhstan's CEC said the lists are under review today and will be adjusted and made public after registration ends on March 18.
Expert opinions
Meanwhile, evaluations of the lists of both individual parties and a possible Majilis as a whole have already appeared on the network. People express doubts that, for example, showman Nurlan Koyanbaev, TV presenter Artur Platonov or boxer Firuza Sharipova, with all their recognition, will be able to immediately retrain as lawyers and economists in order to seriously participate in the development of serious bills.
Political scientist Dosym Satpaev, regarding the list of candidates for deputies from the "Amanat" party, he noted that, in his opinion, the list is full of "recalcitrants", "sneakers" and "cunning silencers".
"In spite of everything, all these characters are close and useful to the current government, as well as to the first president, who also believed that the main thing was to recruit loyalists, cleaning the system from dissenters. And as a result, he created a whole army of opportunists, who quickly turned into his political gravediggers." — posted Satpaev on his Facebook page.
In turn political scientist Andrii Chebotaryov finds :
"The Amanat party claims the position of the parliamentary majority, as before. The OSDP and Baitak parties are trying to enter power with the smallest number of candidates. Although, in my opinion, the face of this election campaign will be single-mandate candidates."
А political scientist Dimash Alzhanov I am sure that the appearance of "new faces" among potential deputies in Kazakhstan will not lead to significant changes, as it does not lead to the independence of the parliament and its independent activity.
"The lists were renewed, but the mechanism of control over deputies remained. Not only that, according to the Constitution, the parliament does not have great powers, but the mechanism of imperative mandate is in place. No matter how you update the party list, the leadership still has the right to control deputies through the party ticket: if you lose your party ticket, you automatically lose your deputy mandate.
The same applies to single-mandate candidates: it is enough to collect 10% of the voters' votes to initiate the withdrawal of the mandate. This practice is undemocratic, it contradicts the principle of the independence of the mandate, and therefore it was criticized in every way by the experts of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission).
And the new political parties, like the old ones, represent the pro-presidential wing, and 70% of seats in the parliament are won exclusively among those who are loyal to the president. Therefore, with any result of the elections, even the most fantastic, control over the parliament will still remain in the hands of Tokayev," he said in a comment to "Republika".
At the same time, he believes that if there was a real competitive struggle in Kazakhstan, the political or professional qualifications of the deputies would be secondary, because it is in the interaction of politicians with different layers of society that useful initiatives and laws for society are born through compromises in the parliament.
"But if the parliament, like the maslikhats, is deprived of powers, then it doesn't matter what quality of people will be delegated there, the legislative power in our country is paralyzed and subordinated to the president. Everything is controlled at the formal and informal level. And those politicians who, so to speak, are embedded in the system or are on the political field within the country, understand that they cannot seriously claim power, deny it. Considering the high risks of their participation in politics, they do not fully invest in the creation of political organizations, and in financial terms in particular," says Alzhanov.
The political scientist does not have high hopes for those who will go to the elections in single-mandate constituencies. According to him, the electoral system has not changed in terms of honesty and openness, control over the counting of votes has remained. In addition, the independent candidates of those who can conditionally be united as the "opposition" do not have serious financial and organizational resources to carry out an effective campaign in the districts in a month. The constituencies themselves are deliberately made huge in terms of both territory and number of voters, and this requires large resources from the candidates.
Extraordinary elections to the Majilis and Maslikhat of Kazakhstan will be held on the same day - March 19. During the elections, 98 deputies of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and 3415 deputies of maslikhats of all levels will be elected. Moreover, according to the latest innovations, 69 deputies (70% of the total number) will go to the Majilis on party lists from political parties, and 29 on single-mandate constituencies. Agitation will be allowed from February 19 and will last until March 18.
