Four days after Kazakhstan’s snap parliamentary elections on January 15, 2012, Anthony C. Bowyer, IFES Program Manager for Central Asia and the Caucasus, spoke about the poll and what it means for democracy in the Central Asian nation.

The election was called in response to the parliament’s request to be dissolved, which President Nursultan Nazabayev granted in November 2011. The pretext for this move was the president’s own desire to increase the diversity of the Majilis, the 107-member lower house of parliament, beyond its total domination by the ruling, pro-presidential Nur-Otan party.

At an event held by the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC), Bowyer said that the goal of obtaining a deliberative, multi-party legislature is necessary in the interest of balancing power, but questioned what has actually been achieved via the Majilis election, considering its overall context and pre-election process. While Kazakhstan, as a result of the election, now has three parties represented in parliament (Nur-Otan won 83 seats, Ak-Zhol 8, and the Communist People’s Party 7), the relatively short, two-month period of time given to political parties to organize campaigns (elections were originally scheduled for August 2012) or even qualify to participate in the elections, as well as the 7 percent threshold required via the party list system to win seats, suggest that achieving fully inclusive elections remains a work in progress twenty years after independence.

To read Bowyer’s remarks, as prepared for delivery at the ITIC event, please click here.