ASTANA, August 15. /Dunyo IA/. On August 23^rd, Kazakhstan will hold elections for deputies of the Kurultai, the country’s new unicameral parliament. Seven political parties are taking part in the elections, having nominated 545 candidates for 145 parliamentary seats, reports Dunyo IA correspondent, citing with the “Kazinform” International News Agency.

Elections are being held as part of a new system of public administration. Deputies of the Kurultai are elected for a five-year term exclusively through party lists in a single nationwide electoral district. Voters will cast their ballots for one of the seven political parties, while seats will be distributed under a proportional representation system.

According to the Central Election Commission, among the registered candidates are 172 women, 74 people under the age of 35 and 19 people with disabilities. The average age of the candidates is 45.4 years. At the same time, the combined share of women, young people and persons with disabilities across all party lists has reached 43.9%.

According to the results of sociological surveys presented at an expert platform in Almaty, between 72 and 75 percent of respondents said they were ready to take part in the elections. Awareness of the upcoming vote stood at 89.4 percent. Citizens aged 46 to 60 are the most likely to participate actively in the elections, while women’s readiness to vote is approximately five percentage points higher than that of men.

One of the notable features of the current campaign has been the active use of digital technologies. According to analyst and former Mazhilis deputy Erlan Smailov, issues of digitalisation and artificial intelligence have been reflected in the election programmes of the parties. He noted that campaign participants are considering AI, among other things, in the context of public administration, social services, digital sovereignty and the protection of citizens’ rights.

Preparations for the elections were also discussed the day before by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chairman of the Central Election Commission Nurlan Abdirov.

Head of State was briefed on the progress of preparations for the vote. Tokayev stressed the need to conduct the elections in accordance with the principles of “Law and Order”, as well as to ensure transparency of the process and equal conditions for all participants.

Thus, the upcoming elections will be the first vote to form the 145-seat unicameral Kurultai. The new deputies will represent political parties in the country’s single legislative body.