Kazakhstan: anti-crisis parliamentary elections

On 20 January 2016, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev dissolved the lower house of parliament (the Mazhilis) and called early general elections for 20 March 2016 (according to the calendar, the elections should have been held at the turn of 2017). At the same time elections were also held to local councils at all levels (from village to city councils). Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis has 107 seats. The parliament in Kazakhstan is completely dependent on the president, and its role largely consists of an unconvincing masking of the government’s authoritarian nature.