Pre-election campaign starts in Kazakhstan

The pre-election campaign of candidates for deputies of the Majilis has started in Kazakhstan.The political parties of Kazakhstan have started their pre-election campaigns today. Six of the seven parties officially registered in the republic will compete: the Nur Otan Party, the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan (CPPK), the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan Ak Zhol, the Birlik party, the National Social Democratic Party (NSDP) and the People's Democratic Patriotic Party Aul.

The total number of candidates is 234. The average age of the registered candidates is 52. The youngest of them is 26. According to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of the Republic, 187 of the candidates (79.9%) are men and 47 (or 20.1%) are women. 233 candidates hold higher education certificates. Every fourth candidate is an engineer and every fifth is an economist or a lawyer. 47 candidates are deputies of the Majilis of the Parliament of the 5th convocation.

The CEC Chairman Kuandyk Turgankulov noted that "the campaign period allows the organization and holding of public political meetings, marches, demonstrations and other pre-election activities." He recalled that "such events must be coordinated with local authorities no less than 10 days prior to their requested implementation".

According to the CEC head, "the local executive bodies must provide candidates space for meetings with voters on a contractual basis. "Terms for rent of premises shall be uniform and equal for all the candidates," TASS cited Turgankulov as saying.

According to the CEC, as of today the election funds of the six parties participating in the elections received 519 million 132 thousand tenges ($1.4 million).

In accordance with the law, the election campaign ends at midnight local time one day before voting day.

The early parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 20th 2016.

A member of the Zinoviev Club, the director of the EurAsEC Institute, Vladimir Lepekhin, said in conversation with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that the political situation in the country is relatively calm now, despite the difficult economic period. "There are no particular opposition proposals for what they should do in the current situation, therefore, the criticism of the government's actions will not be as fundamental as it was, for example, during the last elections," he said.

According to Lepekhin, traditional parties which support the country's policy will build their election campaigns primarily on statements about the need to continue reforms and changes to the constitution relating to the formation of a new political system," he said.

"If, for example, there were opposition parties, which would have a high chance of electing their deputies to the parliament by party lists, then it would make sense to put forward serious political programs to be elected and continue this line in the Parliament. However, since there are no such parties, I think they will focus on the election campaigns of individual candidates," Vladimir Lepekhin said.