Kazakhstani legislative election, 2016

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20 March 2016

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	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Nursultan Nazarbayev	Azat Peruashev	Vladislav Kosarev
Party	Nur Otan	Ak Zhol	CPPK
Seats before	83	8	7
Seats won	84	7	7
Seat change	1	1
Popular vote	6,183,757	540,406	537,123
Percentage	82.20%	7.18%	7.14%
Swing	1.21%	0.29%	0.05%

Parliamentary elections were held in Kazakhstan on 20 March 2016. The date was set by president Nursultan Nazarbayev on 20 January 2016, when he dissolved the Mazhilis after it had requested dissolution on 13 January, with the reason cited being the economic crisis caused by low oil prices. Normally, the term of the Mazhilis would have expired in Autumn 2016.

The 98 directly-elected members of the Mazhilis were elected from a single nationwide constituency by proportional representation with a 7% electoral threshold. Seats were allocated using the largest remainder method. If parties had an equal largest remainder, the party that was registered first was awarded the seat. If only one party crossed the threshold, the party with the second highest number of votes was to be awarded at least two seats. A further nine seats were elected by the Assembly of People, a body selected by the President.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced in their joint press release that the elections had been "efficiently organised with some progress noted, but they indicated that Kazakhstan still has a considerable way to go in meeting its OSCE commitments for democratic elections". The statement added: "The legal framework restricts fundamental civil and political rights, and comprehensive reform is required."

The nine nominees were: Sauytbek Abdrahmov, Vladimir Bozhko, Natalya Zhumadildayeva, Roman Kim, Narine Mikaelyan, Ahmet Muradov, Shaimardan Nurumov, Yury Tymochenko and Shakir Khakhazov.

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