Elections in Kazakhstan
Elections in Kazakhstan are held on a national level to elect a President and the Parliament, which is divided into two bodies, the Majilis and the Senate. Local elections for maslihats are held every five years.
Elections are administered by the Central [Election Commission (Kazakhstan)|Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan].
There are 7 legal political parties in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan’s political opposition is the most developed in the region in terms of its organizational abilities and resources.
None of the elections held in Kazakhstan have been considered free or fair by Western countries or international observers with issues noted including ballot tampering, multiple voting, repression of opposition candidates and press censorship. However, robust reforms have been implemented since 2019 and the OSCE ODI stated in its post-2021 parliamentary election report that "candidates were able to campaign freely." The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has deployed election monitors to Kazakhstan at the invitation of the government for observation of parliamentary and presidential elections since 1999.
Election procedures and technology
Prior to the 2012 parliamentary elections, many Kazakh voters were offered a choice of voting on electronic voting machines or on paper ballots. At least some ofthe ballot boxes used in Kazakhstan are transparent in order to defend against ballot box stuffing. Each polling place was equipped with both a large ballot box and smaller mobile ballot boxes. The latter are designed to be carried, by poll-workers, to voters outside the polling
place.
This is an alternative to offering absentee ballots or proxy voting for voters with disabilities that prevent them from going to the polls.
Electronic voting in Kazakhstan is based on the AIS "Sailau" electronic voting system developed in Belarus and Kazakhstan. This system is best described as an indirect-recording electronic voting system, as opposed to the DRE voting machines that have been more widely studied. In this system, the touch-screen voting terminal in the voting booth serves as a ballot marking device, recording selections on a smart card. The voting terminal itself retains no record of the vote after the voter takes the smart card. The voter then takes the smart card containing the cast ballot record to the computer at the registration table that serves as the electronic ballot box where the permanent record of the vote is retained and tabulated.
On November 16, 2011, Kuandyk Turgankulov, head of the Central Election Commission, said that the Sailau system would be discontinued because the voters prefer paper ballots, the political parties do not trust it, and the country lacks the funds required to update the system.
Election financing
Candidates for elected office in Kazakhstan can receive state financial support to cover campaign costs. In Senate elections, each candidate receives about $2,170.In Senate races, the state budget pays for each candidate’s 15-minute TV address, 10 minutes on the radio, 2 articles in the media, hall rent for meeting with the voters, publication of printed campaign materials and traveling.
Observation
There have been several international election observation missions organised in Kazakhstan. The OSCE has observed the elections.| Elections | date | observing organisation | head of mission |
| early Majilis | March 20, 2016 | ODIHR/OSCE | Boris Frlec |
| early Majilis | March 20, 2016 | executive committee/CIS | Sergey Lebedev |
| early presidential | April 26, 2015 | ODIHR/OSCE | Cornelia Jonker |
| early Majilis | January 15, 2012 | ODIHR/OSCE | Miklós Haraszti |
| early senate | January 15, 2012 | ODIHR/OSCE | Miklós Haraszti |
Presidential elections
Kazakhstan's president is elected by the people and serves a single seven-year term.Term limits were removed for the incumbent Nursultan Nazarbayev on 18 May 2007, when parliament also voted to reduce the term length from seven to five years.
Early presidential elections were called by President Nazarbayev and were held on April 26, 2015. President Barack Obama sent a letter to President Nazarbayev congratulating him on his reelection in the April 26 election.
After President Nazarbayev' resignation in March 2019, snap presidential elections were held on June 9, 2019 with former Senate Chair Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emerging as the winner. In September 2022, the parliament approved changing the term length from five to seven years while lowering the amount of terms to one. In the same month, early presidential elections were called for 20 November 2022.
Parliamentary elections
The legislature, known as the Parliament, has two chambers.The Assembly has 98 members elected for a five-year term, in general elections, in the following way: 70% from closed list party-list proportional representation allocated using the largest remainder method and 30% from single-member districts that use the first-past-the-post voting method. There is a 5% electoral threshold.
The Senate has 50 members, 40 of whom are elected to six-year terms by delegates from the 17 provinces and three national cities, half of whom are elected every three years, and 10 are appointed by the President of Kazakhstan.