Astana (EFE).- Participation in the first five hours of voting in the extraordinary elections to the Lower House (Majilis) of Parliament that are being held today in Kazakhstan reached 30.65% of the census, reported the Central Electoral Commission (CEC ) from this Central Asian country.
More than 12.3 million voters are summoned to the polls to elect the 98 deputies of the Majilis, in a day in which extraordinary local elections are also held and which will end at 8:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. GMT).
According to the Kazakh electoral authorities, the vote is taking place completely normally.
The extraordinary elections were called within the framework of the renewal of the institutions promoted by the country’s president, Kasim-Yomart Tokáyev.
On this occasion, the deputies will be elected according to a mixed system: 69 deputies will be elected by party lists and 29 by majority constituencies.
In the previous legislatures, all the members of the Chamber were elected by party lists.
The seven registered parties in Kazakhstan submitted lists of candidates in order to gain access to the proportional distribution of the 69 seats that are up for grabs and which, according to this system, must exceed 5 percent of the vote.
A total of 435 candidates, 359 of them independent and 76 presented by political formations, compete in the 29 majority constituencies.
More than 800 observers from 41 countries and 12 international organizations were accredited by the CEC.
All the polls show the official AMANAT party as the clear winner.
