Early parliamentary elections kick off in Kazakhstan

07:00, 15 January 2012

ASTANA. January 15. KAZINFORM /Askar Bimendin/ Today, January 15, 2012 at 7:00 am Astana time voters in Kazakhstan begin to vote in early elections of Majilis deputies and election of deputies of maslikhats. Polls will last until 8:00 pm.

9700 polling stations will be open across the country. 56 polling stations will operate in foreign countries for Kazakh citizens residing abroad. According to the CEC, a total of 9.2 million Kazakhstanis were included in voters list.

Kazakhstan invited 819 international observers to monitor the elections. Among them are 309 representatives of the mission of the OSCE/ODIHR, 262 CIS observers, 46 from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, 15 from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 11 observers from the SCO, 9 from Cooperation Council for the Turkic-speaking countries, 7 from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 10 from the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries and 150 observers from 29 foreign countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also accredited about 150 representatives of foreign media, which, according to the Kazakh election law, have the rights of international observers.

Preliminary results of the elections the Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan plans to publish in the afternoon of January 16. Official results must be summed up by January 22 and published prior to January 25. However, the head of the CEC Kuandyk Turgankulov promised to move the deadline for the earlier period so the new Majilis could get to work as soon as possible.

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