Kazakhstan links constitutional reform to stability ahead of parliamentary vote

Kazakhstan’s government framed its constitutional overhaul as a safeguard for stability, a day before voters elect the country’s first single‑chamber parliament.

Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Issetov presented the reform to foreign correspondents at a hotel briefing in Astana on Saturday afternoon, just hours before polling stations opened for the Sunday vote.

He argued that stability does not mean the absence of change, but rather the state’s ability to adapt to new circumstances in good time.

Issetov placed the reform against a shifting external picture, describing an international system that is becoming more complex and less predictable, with rising geopolitical tensions, evolving trade links, and intensifying competition over investment, technology and transport routes.

He noted that Kazakhstan sits at the heart of Eurasia and maintains friendly relations with all countries, making political and economic stability its most vital national resources.

Turning to domestic considerations, Issetov said a growing economy has outpaced the institutions meant to govern it, and that the more complex the economy becomes, the more effective state institutions must be.

He cited the end‑of‑2025 growth rate of 6.5 percent, attributing it to industry, construction, transport and investment activity, alongside government work on industrial production, logistics routes and the digital economy.

More recent data from the Bureau of National Statistics show growth of 3.0 percent in the first quarter of this year and 4.1 percent in the first half, indicating a slowdown from the earlier peak.

The deputy minister stressed that the reform is not change for its own sake; its purpose is to bring political institutions into line with modern Kazakhstan so they can deal more effectively with job creation, income growth, regional development, education and health‑care quality, infrastructure, entrepreneurial openings and social protection.

Voters will choose all 145 seats of the Kurultai, the chamber that replaced the Mazhilis and the Senate when the new constitution took effect on July 1.

The Kurultai is designed to streamline legislative processes by consolidating the former two chambers into a single body, a change officials say will improve responsiveness and reduce procedural delays.

Seven parties are fielding 545 candidates in a single nationwide district, and seats go only to lists that clear five percent of valid votes; self‑nomination is not allowed.

The Central Election Commission has registered 12,605,788 voters.

Adilet leads the ballot with 186 candidates, more than double any rival list, after it absorbed Amanat, which had taken 53.9 percent of the vote in 2023 and held the largest bloc in the Mazhilis; the merger was approved by party congresses in June.

The constitution underlying the change was approved in a referendum on March 15, with the Central Election Commission reporting 87.15 percent support on a turnout of 73.12 percent.

Issetov spoke as a deputy minister rather than for the presidency, but his remarks echoed the case President Kassym‑Jomart Tokayev has made publicly that the vote opens a new cycle of reform.

He closed by saying the government wants to preserve what he called Kazakhstan’s greatest achievement—its stability and its capacity for development—while building a political system fitted to what the country needs next.

Analysts note that by linking the overhaul to stability, the government seeks to pre‑empt criticism that the reform could disrupt the political order, instead presenting it as a necessary adaptation to preserve the very stability it claims to protect.