Today, March 19, Kazakhstan is holding snap parliamentary elections, which President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the latest stage in the " Bloomberg writes about it..

Seven parties, including two newly registered ones, are vying for 69 party-list seats in the 98-member parliament, with the rest to be filled by the winners of new single-member constituencies part of a legislative reset initiated by Tokayev.. Thus, two systems are used simultaneously - proportional (according to party lists) and majoritarian (according to single-member constituencies). Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time and are scheduled to close at 8 p.m..

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Such a legislature is critical for Tokayev to meet the challenges his government faces, she said..

Tokayev is trying to undo the legacy of his longtime predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, after last January's riots, which he denounced as a coup attempt..

Tokayev called on Russian troops to help quell the protests, then revised the constitution to limit the presidential term to only one seven-year term, after which he received 81% of the vote in a snap election in November.

In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the ruling Nur Otan party, founded by Nazarbayev, who has been in power for three decades, won 76 seats.. Last year it changed its name to "

What is at stake now is Tokayev's ability to move forward a controversial agenda that includes structural reforms and self-serving attempts to target assets linked to the former ruler's family..

In addition to the arrests of the former prime minister, then head of Kazakhstan's national security service, and Nazarbayev's nephew, Tokayev also banned close relatives of the president from holding positions in the government and state-owned companies..

Looking ahead after the election, the lower house of parliament, known as the Mazhilis, could provide additional legitimacy for the president, as he could run the risk of antagonizing some citizens..

“Tokayev is ready to pursue a very cautious reform policy that will not be fully legitimate without a reformatted Mazhilis, whose seal of approval is necessary to ensure that any adopted reform package looks like it was approved by the entire people of Kazakhstan, and not just in the interests of the political and economic elite,” he said..

More than a year after quelling the riots with the help of troops sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tokayev did not support Russia's war against Ukraine.

Instead, the President of Kazakhstan is trying to strengthen ties with the EU and the US in order to reduce the country's dependence on Moscow..

Economic challenges, including inflation, are also important to Tokayev. The government is supporting the sale of vegetables from government stocks in an attempt to drive down food prices, which led to annual inflation exceeding 21% in February, the fastest pace since 1997..

“Even if the Parliament is still not vested with real power, the fact that it has more power on paper will make it easier for it to blame the legislature for the lack of progress on key political and social issues.. We will see limited progress on issues such as privatization and price liberalization, especially given runaway inflation,” says director of political risk at international consultancy J. Held Chris Touke.

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Central Asian countries are trying to balance between the West and Russia.

But domestic socio-economic factors worry the governments of these states much more than Russia's revanchist policy and threats from it..

These countries have become an important channel for the re-export of goods to the Russian Federation from the EU, the UK and the US, which negatively affected the efforts of Western states to influence Moscow through sanctions.. And also - it helps Russia cover the technology needs for the military-industrial complex, which works for the war in Ukraine. Natalya Butyrskaya writes about this in the article "