[ASTANA] 2 crore people have the right to vote KazakhstanAnd many of them were going to vote on Sunday for elections to the lower house of parliament and local legislative assemblies.
It is the latest step in President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s reform agenda in the wake of violent protests. political protest A little over a year ago.
In the capital, a steady stream of voters turned up despite the cold and snow, and one woman said her love for her country got her out today,
“I am voting because I want to improve the future of Kazakhstan,” Astana resident Merash Mundada told Media Line.
Another voter, Bulat Jumagulov, told The Media Line that he was optimistic about the direction of the country.
“Now we have so many options, not like the previous elections, everyone has a chance to enter politics and make a difference. We are going on the right track,” he said.
The elections are the latest in a series of reforms enacted by President Tokayev after bloody protests in January last year, when he accused the protesters of attempting a coup and asked neighboring Russia to help crush them.
snap presidential election
But in an attempt to appease the protesters, he also responded with a series of reforms, among them a snap presidential election he easily won last November.
Tokayev is also trying to change his gas-rich country’s foreign policy, distancing it from neighboring Russia by not supporting it. war in ukraine and moving closer to America and the rest of the West,
“It is clear that the process of transformation in a country of this size and this geographic location deserves attention,” Dr. Martin Sajdik, senior advisor and board member of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy, told Media Line.
Still, the reforms have been branded as limited by the West and Kazakhstan’s opposition says the government still commands great power.
President Tokayev calls these elections the most important political event in his young country’s history, and he is betting on high turnout to be able to implement his political reforms.