Kazakhstan’s new Constitution entered into force on July 1, prompting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to set August 23 as the date for parliamentary elections required under the new framework.
The Constitution, adopted in a nationwide referendum on March 15, replaces the country’s bicameral legislature with a single-chamber parliament. Tokayev signed the decree calling elections shortly after the new Basic Law took effect.
The Central Election Commission will accept candidate nominations from July 2 to July 13, with the official campaign period running from July 23 to August 22, the day of electoral silence. The newly elected parliament is expected to begin work before the start of the political season on September 1.
Last session of the old parliament
The outgoing Mazhilis and Senate held their final joint session on June 30, marking the end of Kazakhstan’s bicameral parliament after three decades.
Addressing lawmakers, Tokayev described the session as historic, saying the outgoing parliament had overseen one of the country’s most significant periods of institutional transformation, touching the economic model and the country’s social values. He said more than 300 laws had been adopted during the current convocation, including major constitutional legislation and new tax and budget codes.
Tokayev said the next parliament would focus on maintaining economic growth, reducing inflation, improving public administration, cutting bureaucracy and attracting investment, adding that the goal was to make prosperity and improved living standards “irreversible.”
A new political party
Separately, Tokayev welcomed the merger of Amanat, the country’s biggest party, into the newly established Adilet party, according to Euronews.
Adilet, whose name means justice in Kazakh, was formed in April to support implementation of the new Constitution and initially had around 120,000 members. Following the merger, that number is expected to reach around one million, making it the most influential party in the country. Amanat, formerly known as Nur Otan, had been Kazakhstan’s ruling party for almost 30 years, originally created in 1999 from the campaign headquarters that backed former president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Constitutional Court conference
Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court marked the Constitution’s entry into force with a scientific conference on June 30, Euronews reported. Court chairperson Elvira Azimova said the new Basic Law enshrines, for the first time, principles including the protection of sovereignty, the rule of law, human rights, national unity and the development of education, science and innovation as constitutional priorities.
The new Constitution replaces the 1995 Basic Law, which had been amended six times, most recently in a 2022 referendum. Constitutional Commission member Zhaksybek Kulekeyev said that, unlike previous amendments which focused largely on presidential powers, the new document represents a comprehensive redesign of the country’s political and constitutional system. Kulekeyev said that when changes were first announced, people had been “suspicious” about whether the president was seeking to extend his term, but said such doubts had since been dispelled.
President Tokayev did not alter the conditions of his own term, which runs until 2029, though he emphasised that Kazakhstan remains a presidential state with the president at the centre of its decision-making. Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court has ruled that Tokayev is eligible to seek a new presidential term under the newly adopted Constitution, following the March referendum that reset presidential term limits, a move Reuters and Euronews reported could extend his time in power.
Tokayev’s rise to power
A former Soviet diplomat and senior United Nations official, Tokayev previously served as Kazakhstan’s prime minister and foreign minister before becoming acting president in 2019, succeeding founding president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had resigned.
Initially seen as Nazarbayev’s chosen successor, Tokayev consolidated his political position following nationwide unrest in January 2022 that left hundreds of people dead. He subsequently accused loyalists of the former president of attempting a coup and moved to reduce Nazarbayev’s influence over the country’s political system.
Cyprus-Kazakhstan relations
Cyprus and Kazakhstan have deepened ties in recent months. President Nikos Christodoulides paid the first official visit by a Cypriot head of state to Kazakhstan in early June, travelling to Astana aboard the inaugural direct flight between Larnaca and the Kazakh capital. During the visit, Christodoulides held talks with Tokayev and signed memoranda of understanding covering education, research, culture, technology and cybersecurity.
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