Kazakhstan's Kurultai elections concluded with polling stations closing and vote counting beginning. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Voting lasted from 07:00 to 20:00. Across the country, 10,363 polling stations operated. A total of 12,605,788 people were eligible to vote.
Election commissions are now starting to count the votes.
Abroad, voting continues taking into account time zones.
Polling stations in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Ottawa, and Brasilia continue their work.
By 00:00, 74 stations will finish their work. The voting process abroad will end at the polling station at the Consulate General of Kazakhstan in San Francisco (USA) on August 24 at 08:00 Astana time.
Recall that as of 18:00, turnout reached 72.15%.
According to the Central Election Commission, by 18:00, 9,095,298 people had participated in the voting.
Turkestan region led with 90.17%. It was followed by Zhetysu region – 89.69%, Kyzylorda region – 88.09%, East Kazakhstan region – 85.43%, Aktobe region – 84.95%, and Zhambyl region – 83.99%. In Akmola region, 78.95% of voters cast their ballots, in Abai region – 77.54%, in Kostanay – 75.31%, in North Kazakhstan – 75.14%, in Karaganda – 74.78%.
The lowest turnout was recorded in Almaty at 41.06%. In Astana, 49.87% of voters voted.
The elections took place on August 23 across the country. Kazakhs elected deputies of the new representative body that replaced the previous bicameral parliament model. In total, 145 deputies are to be elected to the Kurultai via party lists. Seven political parties participated in the voting, and the ballot also included the option "Against all".