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Politics

Kazakhstan’s election commission sets 29 November for the maslikhats as Amanat withdraws

The Central Election Commission called extraordinary elections to maslikhats of all levels for Sunday 29 November at a sitting on 13 October, the day after Tokayev’s decree dissolved every council. Seven of the eight registered parties are admitted: Amanat, whose deputies held most of the seats, wrote to the commission that it will not take part.

By CAW Staff14 October 2026
An empty polling station in a school gym with a voting booth, a table with an amber folder and a transparent ballot box.

The commission’s deputy chairman, Mukhtar Yerman, read the resolution at a briefing: extraordinary elections of maslikhat deputies at all levels on 29 November 2026, for five-year terms. By the commission’s count carried by Tengrinews, 3,447 deputies are to be elected. Nomination of candidates opens on 14 October and closes at 18:00 on 27 October, registration of party lists and candidates ends at 18:00 on 1 November, campaigning runs from 18:00 on 1 November to midnight on 28 November, and the polls are open from 07:00 to 20:00, with the results to be established within five days.

More than 12 million voters are expected, commission member Azamat Aimanakumov said, with the lists coming from the akimats 20 days before the vote.

Nomination of candidates opens on 14 October and closes at 18:00 on 27 October, registration of party lists and candidates ends at 18:00 on 1 November, campaigning runs from 18:00 on 1 November to midnight on 28 November, and the polls are open from 07:00 to 20:00, with the results to be established within five days.

The money comes from the government’s reserve, because the campaign was not in this year’s budget, commission member Mikhail Bortnik said. Between 75% and 80% of the cost will go to paying more than 86,000 members of election commissions, with 3,022 district commissions and 15,110 more people added for the single-mandate districts, whose registered candidates also receive state funding for campaigning. The final sum is the government’s to set on the territorial commissions’ requests.

Vice-minister of justice Botagoz Zhakselekova told the sitting that all eight registered parties could take part: Adilet, Auyl, Ak Zhol, the OSDP, the People’s Party of Kazakhstan, Baitak, Respublica and Amanat. The commission’s chairman, Nurlan Abdirov, corrected the count: before the sitting the commission received an official letter from Amanat that it would not take part in the extraordinary elections, and the commission proceeds with the remaining seven.

Amanat’s absence follows the reason Tokayev gave for the dissolution on 24 September: the overwhelming majority of maslikhat deputies were elected from Amanat, and that party has joined Adilet and no longer acts on its own. The election law gave the commission until 12 December to hold the vote. It chose 29 November, with the results due by 4 December.

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