From March 17 to March 18 this year Chairman of the Central Election Commission Nurlan Abdirov met with participants in electoral process in Nur-Sultan

March 17, 2022 Chairman of the Central Election Commission Nurlan Abdirov met with representatives of political parties, NGOs, media, members of the public council, deputies of the maslikhat, public opinion leaders, bloggers, members of the election commissions of Nur-Sultan in the assembly hall named after L. Gumilyov. The event was attended by 357 people.

The meeting discussed political reforms voiced in the address of the Head of State to the people of Kazakhstan "New Kazakhstan: The path of renewal and modernization" dated March 16, 2022. In particular, the issues of modernization of the electoral process: the introduction of a mixed electoral system in elections of deputies of the Mazhilis and maslikhats of regions, the capital, cities of republican significance as well as a majoritarian system in the formation of city and district maslikhats.

Nurlan Abdirov noted that the purpose of introducing a proportional electoral system in 2007 and 2018 was to develop the party system, both at the republican and regional levels. The majoritarian electoral system in turn will provide an opportunity for strong personalities who are not members of any party to enter the representative authorities, which in general will affect the development of political competition. He also stressed that formation of a representative government based on the principle of a mixed electoral system would give a palette of diverse opinions to address the needs of the population.

In addition, a discussion on the introduction of electronic voting, simplification of legislative requirements for candidates for deputies of maslikhats and rural akims, raising the status of national observers, their rights and powers, and optimizing the procedure for counting votes at polling stations took place.

Also on that day, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission visited Sharapat Social Service Center in the building of which a polling station was established. He got acquainted with the work of the precinct election commission during the election period and also drew attention to the need to create conditions for voting for the guests of the Center most of whom are elderly people, veterans, and people with disabilities.

On March 18 this year Nurlan Abdirov met with representatives of the capital's youth within the walls of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Opening the meeting, he noted that currently the Central Election Commission travels to all regions of the country to study public opinion on improving the electoral process, and this is about 36% of voters is one of the significant components of the electorate.

During the 3-hour meeting an active discussion took place on introduction of proportional and majoritarian electoral systems, the use of social networks in conduct of election campaigning including the organization of election debates as well as informing young people.

Representatives of youth organizations drew attention to conducting training activities to improve legal literacy and electoral culture among young voters.

Nurlan Abdirov supported the proposal of youth and stressed that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in his address focused on the need to develop political culture among the citizens of the country, and electoral culture is its important component. Therefore, the Central Election Commission will pay special attention to this issue.

During the meeting the Central Election Commission conducted an online survey among young people on some important issues of the electoral process: 54.5% of respondents support the introduction of remote electronic voting using computers, smartphones, tablets. At the same time, 10.1% voted for stationary electronic voting at polling stations, 27.8% - for mixed electronic voting (stationary, remote). At the same time, 7.6% voted for the traditional form of voting by paper ballot.

Following the meeting the youth representatives expressed gratitude to the Chairman of the Central Election Commission for the open dialogue on topical issues of the electoral process.

The head of the Central Election Commission expressed his gratitude with the words: “I am proud that I live at this time, in this country, in this city, and that we have politically literate, active and creative youth.”

Also on this day, Nurlan Abdirov visited the IKOMEK 109 City Monitoring and Rapid Response Center where he got acquainted with the work of the call center during the election period.