Under a new election law, a minimum of two parties will enter parliament after the Jan. 15 polls, although no robust anti-government forces are believed to stand any real prospect of winning seats.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a government meeting Tuesday that the election should be brought forward, from August as had been scheduled, to avoid the campaigning season coinciding with an anticipated global economic downturn.
The authoritarian oil-rich former Soviet nation’s parliament is currently occupied exclusively by Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party.
Changes to law approved in 2009 mean the party that wins the second largest number of votes will be allocated seats even if it fails to pass the 7 percent threshold normally needed to get into parliament.
And despite apparent efforts to broaden representation in parliament, few believe any genuine opposition parties will win seats. The pro-business and government-friendly Ak Zhol party is seen as most likely to enter the legislature.
Ak Zhol leader Azat Peruashev is known to be a close associate of Nazarbayev’s influential billionaire son-in-law Timur Kulibayev.
The Central Asian nation, which shares long borders with both Russia and China, has never held an election deemed free and fair by international observers.
Nazarbayev, a 71-year old former Communist party boss who has led his country with an iron fist since independence in 1991, was earlier this year re-elected for a new five-year term with 95.6 percent of the vote. All real power lies in his hands and parliament serves in effect as a rubber stamp body.