Legislative elections were held in Kazakhstan on 10 January 2021 to elect the members of the Mäjilis to the 7th Parliament of Kazakhstan. They were the eighth legislative elections in Kazakhstan's history since independence and coincided with the 2021 local elections. The elections were the first to be held under Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's presidency and the first since 2004 to be held at the normally scheduled date, rather than due to an early dissolution of the Mäjilis.
The ruling Nur Otan party maintained its dominant party status in the Mäjilis by winning 71.1% of the vote and sweeping 76 seats; however, it fared worse than the prior election in 2016, losing 8 seats and 11.1% of votes, while two parties nominally in the opposition (Aq Jol and People's Party of Kazakhstan, present in the Mäjilis since 2012, performed better, each seeing a small gain in votes and seats. Despite some expectations, the other contesting parties failed to reach the 7% electoral threshold, and thus were not able to enter the Parliament. Several opposition groups called for a boycott and protests in the elections, citing lack of openness and fairness. The only registered party which poses true opposition to the government, the Nationwide Social Democratic Party, for the first time in a legislative election refused to contest the race, while other groups encouraged to tactically vote for the Aq Jol to at least draw away some votes from Nur Otan. The legislative election saw a voter turnout of 63.3%, the lowest since 1999. The Assembly of People of Kazakhstan indirectly elected its allotted nine members to the Mäjilis on 11 January 2021.
Campaigning was focused on issues such as reforms enacted by President Tokayev, economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, social issues, land sales and the agricultural sector. The election was plagued by several corruption scandals regarding former president Nursultan Nazarbayev's circles, diplomatic issues between Kazakhstan and Russia over controversial land claims, as well as pressure and crackdowns on human rights groups, journalists, activists, and election observers. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called the elections as "low-key" with lack of "genuine competition", as all the contesting parties supported Tokayev's policies or espoused pro-government positions.
On election day unsanctioned protests resulted in detentions of people across the cities of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs said that all participants were released with no charges.
The new session of the Mäjilis first convened on 15 January 2021. From there, Nurlan Nigmatulin was reelected as the Mäjilis Chair while Askar Mamin was reappointed as the Prime Minister after being nominated by Tokayev to the post.
Background Tokayev's presidency and reforms
Following the 2016 legislative election, the ruling Nur Otan party maintained its supermajority control of the lower house Mäjilis in the 6th Parliament of Kazakhstan, which it has held since 2007. After Nursultan Nazarbayev's resignation from the presidency on 20 March 2019 and the snap presidential elections which were held on 9 June 2019, newly elected President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in his inauguration on 12 June promised a continuation of Nazarbayev's policies in the country's development and social and economic reforms. Despite resigning from office, Nazarbayev still holds the title of "Elbasy" ("Leader of the Nation"), and remains chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan for life, is the Nur Otan party chairman, and a Constitutional Council member, while his eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva held the post of Senate Chair, the second line of succession in the country after the President. Many analysts considered that Tokayev's presidency would be temporary, and would only serve as a bridge for an eventual transition of power to Nazarbayeva.
Throughout the course of his presidency, Tokayev proposed numerous reforms, such as laws on public rallies which excluded provisions requiring official approval, reducing the required number of members in political parties to be registered, offenses such as slander and libel being removed, and hate speech laws being more specific and less harsh. After the adoption of the law in May 2020, it received criticism from Kazakh and international human rights activists, who noted that the newly reformed rules still fell short of international standards, such as barring non-Kazakh citizens from organizing and joining protests and limiting public assemblies to only designated locations.
On 21 October 2020, President Tokayev signed the decree setting a date for the legislative elections to be held on 10 January 2021, outlining that the Parliament will focus on "quality legislative support for social and economic reforms in the country."
COVID-19 pandemic Talk arose of possible snap legislative elections, with Tokayev announcing a possibility they would be held in April 2020. However, after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Kazakhstan in March 2020, which resulted in nationwide lockdowns and quarantine measures, the idea of an early election was put aside as Kazakh authorities were forced to contain the spread of the virus. Tokayev instructed the government to implement certain fiscal packages, such as increasing state pensions and welfare payouts by 10%, providing more tax breaks for small businesses and boosting spending on subsidies in order to limit the economic impacts of the virus. He also called for monthly pay of 42,500 ₸ per person with kits including food products and other basic necessities. On 11 May 2020, Kazakhstan ended the state of emergency it had put into place to contain the virus, allowing its regions to slowly lift their own lockdowns. However, after an increase of COVID-19 cases, Tokayev announced a second lockdown on 29 June 2020 which became effective starting 5 July 2020. During that period, the Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan announced that an "unknown pneumonia" was spreading throughout the country, and claimed it was deadlier than COVID-19. The Kazakh Ministry of Healthcare dismissed those claims, stating that the unspecified pneumonia was likely COVID-19, based on symptoms, but was not confirmed by laboratory testing that followed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The WHO in a press briefing on 10 July 2020, expressed its belief that the unspecified pneumonia cases were most likely un-diagnosed COVID-19 cases. The nationwide lockdowns in Kazakhstan were originally set to end on 19 July, but were extended twice and eventually lifted on 19 August 2020. Despite relief efforts by authorities, Kazakhstan's GDP throughout the course of the pandemic shrunk by 1.8% and the unemployment rate reached 5%. The total unemployment rate, including discouraged workers, increased to 10.8%. The monthly stimulus pay enacted in March was criticized as too little to cover the cost of living in cities such as Almaty and Nur-Sultan.
Corruption scandals
Utemuratov case The Wall Street Journal reported on 1 December 2020 that the Courts of England and Wales had frozen the equivalent of US$5 billion in assets connected to Bulat Utemuratov (former president Nursultan Nazarbayev's aide), including stakes in luxury hotels, cash in bank accounts in half a dozen countries, and a Burger King franchise, in a settlement made by BTA Bank. Mukhtar Ablyazov, exiled former Kazakh banker and politician currently residing in France, denied the allegations of the case filed as well by the bank, calling it a plot to discredit Utemuratov as "political heavyweight and rival in the fight for power" instigated by the National Security Committee Chairman and former PM Karim Massimov.
Negotiations between representatives of Utemuratov and BTA Bank resulted in a confidential agreement, in which the bank undertook to withdraw its claim. Under the agreement, the English court removed restrictions on Utemuratov's assets on 9 December.
Kulibayev's money laundering On 3 December 2020, the Financial Times reported that Nazarbayev's son-in-law Timur Kulibayev had allegedly received tens of millions of dollars in a secret project related to the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Central Asia to China. The report said that Kulibayev had arranged contracts in which the Moscow-based Alexander Karmanov-owned ETK received US$53 million in a hidden scheme with parts of profit being laundered to Kulibayev's company.
In response to the laundering claims, it was reported on 8 December that Kulibayev had dismissed these reports and called on Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan to investigate these allegations.
Real estate assets owned by Nazarbayev's family On 22 December, , a Kazakh service of RFE/RL, published investigative reporting on real estate assets owned by Nazarbayev relatives, such as a luxury hillside villa in Cannes owned by his brother Bolat and ex-wife, and an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City, a luxurious oceanfront estate in Costa Brava, Spain belonging to his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev which Nazarbayev himself had reportedly visited, as well as several real estate properties in United Kingdom owned by Dariga Nazarbayeva and her son Nurali which the British National Crime Agency suspected were bought from illegal sources of funds. The charges were dismissed by the High Court of Justice in April 2020. The total value of the properties was estimated at US$785 million.
Controversies regarding Kazakhstan's integrity
On the 10 December 2020 Channel One Russia program, Vyacheslav Nikonov, chairman of the Committee on Education and Science of the State Duma and grandson of prominent Soviet politician Vyacheslav Molotov, made a controversial claiming that most of present-day Kazakhstan is uninhabited, specifically the northern part of the country, and that its territory was a "great gift" from Russia and the Soviet Union. As a result, Nikonov received a huge backlash on social media from Kazakh users, who accused him of being ignorant and attempting to start a clamor around himself. The Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the claims made by Nikonov in a letter given to Russian ambassador Aleksander Komarov, warning that "increasingly frequent provocative insinuations by some Russian politicians regarding Kazakhstan are seriously harming our states' friendly relations." The Ministry called for the Russian government to take measures to prevent further controversial statements by Russian politicians. On 12 December, Nikonov made a public apology on his Telegram channel for his words, saying "I believe that the interests of Kazakhstan were fully observed when defining the borders of the Kazakh SSR, which became the borders of the Republic of Kazakhstan." However, the following day on 13 December, Russian nationalist and State Duma member of parliament (MP) Yevgeny Fyodorov supported Nikonov's original claims at the Belarusinfo YouTube channel, saying that Kazakhstan "should be grateful for the gift", referring to the country's territory, and stated that Kazakhstan should return some of its territories if it does not acknowledge them as "gifts from Russia". Former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, in response to the territorial claims, fired back in a speech made on 15 December commemorating Independence Day, where he said that Kazakhs are "the descendants of brave ancestors who inhabited a vast valley from Altai to Atyrau, and from Alatau to Arka." Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi dismissed Nikonov and Fyodorov's statements on 23 December, calling them "bullshit" and noted that the controversy "does not correspond to the official position of the Russian Federation." He added that Kazakhstan has friendly relations with Russia and will continue to develop ties based on international laws.