| JRL HOME | SUPPORT | SUBSCRIBE | RESEARCH & ANALYTICAL SUPPLEMENT | |
Old Saint Basil's Cathedral in MoscowJohnson's Russia List title and scenes of Saint Petersburg
Excerpts from the JRL E-Mail Community :: Founded and Edited by David Johnson
#33 - JRL 2007-189 - JRL Home
Over 60% Of Kazakhs Disapprove Of One-party Parliament

ALMATY. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Over 60% of the people in Kazakhstan are critical of the fact that only one party, Nur Otan, won seats at the Kazakh parliament in the recent elections, a poll shows.

The poll conducted by the Center of Social Technologies on August 29 - September 2 showed that 63.6% of Kazakh residents view negatively their one-party parliament, Valery Yefremov of the Center of Social Technologies said.

"The people also believe that members of opposition parties should be at the parliament. In particular, 55.2% of Kazakhs mentioned the Nationwide Social-Democratic Party, 35.1% Ak Zhol, 18.8% Auyl, and over 13% the Party of Patriots," Yefremov said.

The elections of 98 out of the 107 deputies of the Majilis, the lower chamber of the Kazakh parliament, in which seven parties ran, took place on August 18. Nur Otan won all 98 seats, and the other parties failed to overcome the 7% qualification threshold, according to the Central Elections Committee.

Another nine Majilis deputies were nominated by the Kazakhstan People Assembly at a session on August 20.