ALMATY, July 1 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan will hold a snap parliamentary election on August 23, according to a decree signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday as a new constitution took effect in the Central Asian state.
The new basic law streamlines Kazakhstan’s previous two-chamber parliament into a smaller, one-chamber legislature. It also creates a new post of vice-president, which is expected to be filled after the election.
Tokayev, who took office in 2019, has been driving a far-reaching overhaul of political life in Central Asia’s largest economy, a major minerals and energy exporter with an authoritarian political system.
He first came to power as the handpicked successor of Kazakhstan’s founding president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Tokayev broke with his predecessor in 2022, alleging that a wave of nationwide unrest that killed hundreds of people that year was a coup attempt by Nazarbayev loyalists.
Tokayev has since portrayed Nazarbayev’s three decades in power as a period of unrestrained corruption, and sought to erode his remaining influence.
Last month, Kazakhstan’s previously ruling Amanat party, which had dominated the country’s politics under various names since its founding by Nazarbayev in 1999, was merged with the upstart Adilet party, which is led by close aides to Tokayev.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
