Kazakhstan

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has dismissed the parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis, and set March 19 as the date for snap parliamentary elections a year after the country was plunged into chaos amid deadly protests that revealed deep-seated anger over corruption and nepotism.

Kazakhstan’s reform efforts after the recent presidential elections could position the country as a key partner for the EU, with the region increasingly slipping out from Russia’s thumb.

In January 2022, Kazakhstan’s government shut down internet access for several days while enacting a violent crackdown on initially peaceful protests triggered by hikes in fuel prices. This policy brief examines Kazakhstan’s internet and media landscape, the (re)actions of civil society and the state, and the factors that set the stage for this extreme act of digital repression, which created a disturbing precedent for the country and the Eurasia region more broadly.

Kazakhstan has dismissed international criticism of its presidential vote, in which incumbent Kassym-Jomart Tokayev secured a landslide re-election victory.

Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was reelected on Sunday (20 November), building on hopes and promises of democratic reforms in a country ruled  for almost 30 years by a predecessor who concentrated too much power. According to the early results of the snap elections called in early September, Tokayev gathered votes from 81.31%, … .

Some 200,000 foreigners have applied for Kazakh individual identification numbers to be eligible to work and have bank accounts in the Central Asian nation since Russian citizens came in droves to neighboring Kazakhstan after Moscow announced a partial mobilization for the war in Ukraine in September.

Incumbent Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev will face off against five relatively unknown candidates -- including, for the first time, two women -- in an early presidential election slated for next month.

The president of Kazakhstan on Saturday signed constitutional amendments that extended the presidential term to seven years and brought back the old name of the country's capital.

Kazakhstan's president, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, has called for an early presidential election in the coming months in which he will seek a second term in office. In an annual address on September 1, Toqaev also proposed increasing the presidential term to seven years from five years while barring future presidents from seeking more than one term.

The pace of trials related to the violence that left 238 people dead is accelerating as the authorities move to conclude the criminal proceedings and move Kazakhstan on from the unrest that has come to be known as Bloody January.