KAZAKHSTAN
Parliamentary Chamber: Mazhilis

ELECTIONS HELD IN 1999

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Chamber:
  Mazhilis


Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):

  10 October 1999
24 October 1999


Purpose of elections:

  Elections were held for all the seats of the Assembly following the premature dissolution of this body. General elections had previously been held in December 1995.


Background and outcome of elections:

  President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced by public decree on 7 July 1999 that the elections to both Houses of the Parliament (the Senate and Assembly) would take place on 17 September 1999 and 10 October 1999 respectively.

The former Soviet republic, independent since 1991, wanted to project with these elections a democratic image because its January presidential election had been criticized in the West as unfair. For the first time, 10 of the 77 seats in the Assembly were contested on a party basis and opposition candidates were given access to the media. However international and domestic observers described the parliamentary election as flawed. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, that had deployed 200 observers to monitor the vote, reported that the election had fallen far short of international standards. It was alleged that innocent candidates had been treated unfairly and that voters had been pressured not to vote for certain candidates.

About 60 percent of the eight million registered voters turned out for the ballot which was a much lower turnout than the one for the 1995 elections, at which voter participation was 79%.

In the election to the Assembly, the ten seats allotted to political parties were decided in the first round on October 10, as well as 20 seats where candidates secured a majority. The remaining 47, where there was no clear majority, were decided at a second round which took place on 24 October.

Kazakhstan's election commission called for new voting to be held in three of the 67 voting districts. The new polls would be held in Atyrau city and the South Kazakhstan and Dzhambul regions. The Kazakh election laws do not allow the original candidates to run again in the new voting in these three districts.

For the Senate, on 17 September, deputies in the regional and city assemblies elected the 16 contested seats. Twelve of the new senators were nominated by Maskikhats (provinces) and the other four were self-nominated.

STATISTICS
Round no 1 (10 October 1999): Elections results  
Number of registered electors 8 411 757
Voters 5 262 489 (63 %)

Round no 1: Distribution of seats  
Political Group Total
Rapublican Party Otan 23
Civil Party of Kazakhstan 13
Communist Party 3
Agrarian Party 3
National Co-operative Party of Kazakhstan 1
Independents and others 34

Distribution of seats according to sex:  
Men: 69
Women: 8
Percent of women: 10.39


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Copyright © 1999 Inter-Parliamentary Union