Kazakhstan Votes: President Set to Tighten Grip on Power

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Kazakhstan held parliamentary elections Sunday, a vote expected to further strengthen President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s control over Central Asia’s largest nation. The pro-presidential Adilet party is widely predicted to win an overwhelming majority. Several smaller parties loyal to Tokayev are also expected to enter parliament. Tokayev, 73, has been in office since 2019. He is a former Soviet official and Kazakh diplomat who previously worked at the United Nations. This is the country’s first election to a new, single-chamber parliament called the Kurultai. The vote completes a constitutional overhaul Tokayev started in March. At that time, 87% of voters supported a referendum to merge the two parliamentary chambers into one. The changes also allow the president to appoint key officials, subject to parliamentary approval, and reestablish the vice presidency. Last month, Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court ruled that these amendments reset the clock on Tokayev’s previous terms. This opens the door for him to run for another seven-year term. Tokayev has justified the changes by citing the need for rapid decision-making in a fast-changing world. He has sought to balance relations between Moscow and the West since sanctions were imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. The election comes at a difficult economic time. Inflation hit 10.2% in February, and tax hikes have fueled public discontent. Analysts say the economic strain has made authorities wary of a repeat of the unrest of January 2022. That month, fuel price protests spiraled into violence that left dozens dead. Tokayev is seeking to guard against a similar scenario by concentrating power in his own hands. Tokayev called the vote a “truly historic event.” “Without a doubt, these elections will be remembered as perhaps the most interesting in our country’s history,” he said Friday. “Amid unprecedented geopolitical tensions and mounting global challenges, we must firmly and consistently implement our strategy to transform Kazakhstan into a truly developed state.” The vote also takes place amid intensifying crackdowns on press freedom. Media organizations have urged Tokayev to drop criminal charges against several journalists currently under house arrest. Authorities have opened roughly 10 criminal cases against independent journalists and popular bloggers. The most recent case involves Lukpan Akhmedyarov, an independent journalist who hosts the YouTube project “Prosto Zhurnalistika,” or Simply Journalism. He told The Associated Press that a criminal case was opened against him in August on charges of “disseminating false information.” The charge follows his publication of a list of Kazakhstani citizens fighting in Ukraine. He faces up to seven years in prison. “In the run-up to these parliamentary elections, repression has intensified sharply, with attacks on independent media, cyberattacks, and criminal cases launched against independent journalists and popular bloggers,” Akhmedyarov told the AP from Almaty. “It feels like the authorities want to silence all media outlets they don’t control — everyone they couldn’t reach an agreement with or couldn’t buy off.” Akhmedyarov said the streets of Kazakhstan’s major cities are “flooded with advertisements and posters for the pro-presidential Adilet party.” “It is not very difficult to predict the outcome of these elections,” he said.