Kazakh Elections Under New President Looking A Lot Like Previous Votes Under Nazarbaev
January 06, 2021 20:10 GMT
Share
share
Print
Kazakhstan will hold its first parliamentary elections on January 10 without longtime authoritarian Nursultan Nazarbaev as the president.
Nazarbaev finally stepped down in 2019 from the office he held since Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991 ushering in his successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
But despite a change of president, many feel Nazarbaev still rules the country.
One sign he s the country s gray eminence is the manner in which these elections to the Mazhilis, the lower house, are being conducted.
Though some hoped Toqaev would open up society and allow some freedoms absent under Nazarbaev, the upcoming vote appears to be no different than earlier ones for parliament none of which were deemed free or fair by Western election monitors.