Baku, Azerbaijan, March 19
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Pre-election silence has started in Kazakhstan before the voting to the parliament and local representative bodies, known as the maslikhats, to be held March 20.
Under the country's electoral law, any kind of election campaign is prohibited on March 19 starting from 00:00 (UTC/GMT +6 hours).
More than 9,800 polling stations will be opened across the country on the election day.
Aside from that, 65 polling stations have been created at the country's diplomatic missions abroad.
As many as 234 candidates from the following six parties are running for the parliament: the ruling party Nur Otan (127 candidates), Ak Zhol (35 candidates), Aul (19 candidates), the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan (22 candidates), the Nationwide Social Democratic Party (23 candidates) and the Birlik Party (eight candidates).
A total of 98 MPs are to be elected from these parties. Nine more MPs are to be elected from Kazakhstan's Assembly of People during a voting at the Assembly on March 21.
As many as 10,825 candidates are running for seats in the maslikhats. On average, three candidates are running for one maslikhat member mandate.
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