About 9,000 polling stations opened in Kazakhstan on Sunday for early parliamentary elections that will end the ruling party's monopolistic control of the legislature.
After securing a victory of 88 percent during the 2007 election, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan held 98 seats out of 107, with the rest occupied by independent lawmakers. None of its political rivals cleared the 7% threshold.
The elections had been originally scheduled for August 2012, but Nazarbayev ruled last November to dissolve the legislature and hold snap polls. The decision came following a request from a group of 53 lawmakers and is designed to bring at least one more party besides Nur Otan into the lower house, the Mazhilis.
Under the 2009 election law, the runner-up will get at least two seats in the legislature, even if it garners less than 7 percent required for proportional allotment of seats.
Seven parties will compete in the elections, with the pro-business Ak Zhol and the Communists seen as the most likely runners-up.
A survey by the country’s Institute for Democracy shows some 80 percent of Kazakhstan’s 9.2 million eligible voters are going to support Nur Otan.
The vote will take place from 7:00 to 20:00 local time [1:00-14:00 GMT in all regions, including Zhanaozen, where a state of emergency was imposed after deadly riots.
More than 1,000 international observers will monitor the polls, which will be covered by more than 120 foreign journalists. Security has been strengthened across the country ahead of the vote.
Earlier this week, Nazarbayev vetoed the decision by the country’s Constitutional Council not to hold parliamentary elections in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen, which saw violent riots last month that left 16 people dead.
The Constitutional Council ordered to exclude Zhanaozen from voting in the polls last week, a few days after Nazarbayev extended the state of emergency in the town to January 31.
Accused by critics of authoritarianism, Nazarbayev, 71, has ruled the gas-rich Central Asian state since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
