Baku, Azerbaijan, March 21
By Aynur Gasimova, Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Kazakhstan held a parliamentary election March 20, the result of which, according to exit polls, wasn't a surprise and won't bring a significant change to the balance of powers in the parliament.
According to the survey data, released by the Public Opinion Institute, three of the six parties that participated in the election have overcome the 7-percent threshold, which is important for entering the parliament.
Those parties are Nur Otan (the ruling party), the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan and Ak Zhol. These are the same parties that were represented in the previous parliament.
Moreover, the amount of the votes cast for these parties on March 20 doesn't greatly differ from the amount of the votes given at the previous election.
As for instance, during the election, the Nur Otan party garnered 82.15 percent of the votes, the Communist People's Party - 7.15 percent, and Ak Zhol - 7.17 percent, according to the exit polls. During the 2012 election, these parties gained 80.99 percent, 7.19 percent and 7.47 percent of the votes, respectively.
Such results were expected in Kazakhstan, as well as in the region and beyond it. It is well known that President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his team enjoy great support from the people of Kazakhstan. And this support increases from year to year.
President Nazarbayev and his party, Nur Otan, have traditionally garnered the majority of votes at the elections held since Kazakhstan gained its independence. It is worth remembering that, 97.75 percent of voters cast their ballots for the incumbent president at the 2015 presidential election.
Today, the majority of Kazakhstan's population sees Nazarbayev and his party as a power that can maintain stability in the country and as a power that is becoming the main value in today's world shaken by crises and facing new and new challenges.
Developments in the Middle East and Ukraine have seriously frightened Kazakhs. And many of them believe that Nazarbayev and his team can eliminate even the slightest possibility of such developments in Kazakhstan.
Given that the balance of political forces in the Kazakh parliament will remain virtually unchanged, it is hard to expect significant changes in the parliament's activity. The parliament will most likely seek to continue its current path.
However, the new parliament will have to work in quite difficult economic conditions: low prices for oil and other raw materials, which are the main sources of Kazakhstan's income, and the economic crisis in Russia, which is Kazakhstan's main trade partner.
This means that, perhaps, the new parliament will have to seek other ways to replenish the budget and economy.
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