2021 Almaty City Mäslihat election

Elections to the Almaty City Mäslihat were held on 10 January 2021 to elect 39 councillors of the Almaty City Mäslihat. This is the first time that the councillors would be chosen by party-list proportional representation.

2021 Almaty City Mäslihat election

10 January 2021
All 39 seats in the Almaty City Mäslihat 20 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	30.25%
Leader Zhansaya Abdumalik Alia Bekkujina Party Nur Otan Ak Zhol Leader since 18 November 2020 20 November 2020 Last election New New Seats won 29 15 Seat change 29 4 Popular vote 218,003 32,367 Percentage 68.11% 10.11%   Leader Mahambet Hasenov Älibek Şapenov Party Auyl People's Party Leader since 18 November 2020 9 December 2020 Last election New New Seats won 3 3 Seat change 3 3 Popular vote 24,591 23,388 Percentage 7.68% 7.31%
Secretary before election Qaldybai Qazanbaev Nonpartisan Elected Secretary Stanislav Kankurov Nur Otan

The Nur Otan won majority of 29 seats in the Almaty City Mäslihat following by the other 3 parties.

Background

In the aftermath of the 2016 City Mäslihat elections which were non-partisan, the councillors though, were mostly consisted of Nur Otan party members.

In 2018, the Government of Kazakhstan approved a new constitutional amendment which would allow all Mäslihat elections to be conducted through party-list proportional representation.[1] However, the move would prevent self-nominated Independent candidates from competition in the race since the City Mäslihats require all councillors to be part of a registered political party.[2]

In December 2019, the City Mäslihat unanimously voted for approval of the draft Almaty-2050 Development Strategy aimed to solve the problems in Almaty and improve lives of citizens.[3] As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan, the city suffered setbacks in declining economy, investments and an increase in inflation due to quarantine measures and lockdowns that were implemented.[4] City councillor Qairat Qudaibergen was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19.[5] In December 2020, during a briefing, Almaty äkim Bakhytzhan Sagintayev stated that the economy had stabilized and that it has a "potential for rapid recovery in the post-epidemic period."[6]

Electoral system

The City Mäslihat councillors are directly-elected through proportional representation for a 5-year term and must win the 7% electoral threshold to win any seats. If only one party manages to pass the threshold, then the other party with the second most received votes is awarded enough seats to have representations in the City Mäslihat.[2]

Parties

5 parties submitted their list to the Territorial Election Commission of the Almaty City which included:

Name			Ideology	No. 1 in party-list	No. of candidates	Registration date
	NO	Nur Otan	Big tent	Zhansaya Abdumalik	78	18 November 2020	[7]
	AUYL	Auyl People's Democratic Patriotic Party	Agrarianism	Mahambet Hasenov	6	30 November 2020	[8]
	QHP	People's Party of Kazakhstan	Socialism	Älibek Şapenov	14	9 December 2020	[9]
	ADAL	Adal	Eco-socialism	Rauan Bugybaev	5	8 December 2020	[10]
	AJ	Ak Zhol Democratic Party	Liberalism	Alia Bekkujina	15	8 December 2020	[11]

Results

The Nur Otan won 68.1% of the vote, gaining a majority of 29 seats in the City Mäslihat. Other 3 contesting parties for the seats managed to enter the City Mäslihat except for the Adal which narrowly missed the 7% electoral threshold to win any seats.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Nur Otan	218,003	68.11	29	+29
	Ak Zhol Democratic Party	32,367	10.11	4	+4
	Auyl People's Democratic Patriotic Party	24,591	7.68	3	+3
	People's Party	23,388	7.31	3	+3
	Adal	21,733	6.79	0	0
Total		320,082	100.00	39	0
Valid votes		320,082	93.75
Invalid/blank votes		21,349	6.25
Total votes		341,431	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,132,298	30.15
Source: Territorial Election Commission of Almaty

Popular vote Nur Otan   68.11% Ak Zhol   10.11% Auyl   7.68% QHP   7.31% Adal   6.79%

City Mäslihat seats Nur Otan   77.55% Ak Zhol   10.25% Auyl   7.69% QHP   7.69% Adal   0%

References

1. tengrinews.kz. "Законы - О внесении изменений и дополнений в некоторые конституционные законы Республики Казахстан (изменения на 29 июня 2018) Z1800000162 | Tengrinews.kz". Главные новости Казахстана - Tengrinews.kz (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-12-09.
2. "Незаметные маслихаты - Аналитический интернет-журнал Vласть". vlast.kz (in Russian). 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
3. "Депутаты городского маслихата единогласно проголосовали за утверждение Стратегии "Алматы-2050"". almaty.tv (in Russian). 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
4. Маулетбай, Серикжан (2020-05-27). "Экономика Алматы во время карантина упала на 9,2%. Потери по налогам за год составят 100 млрд тенге". informburo.kz (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-12-09.
5. "Кайрат Кудайберген заражен коронавирусом". almaty.tv (in Russian). 2020-06-19. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
6. INFORM.KZ (2020-12-07). "Экономика Алматы стабилизирована - Бакытжан Сагинтаев". www.inform.kz (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-12-09.
7. "Алматы қаласы аумақтық сайлау комиссиясының хабары". gov.egov.kz (in Kazakh). 2020-11-18. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
8. "Алматы қаласы аумақтық комиссиясының хабары". gov.egov.kz (in Kazakh). 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
9. "Алматы қаласы аумақтық комиссиясының хабары". gov.egov.kz (in Kazakh). 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
10. "Алматы қаласы аумақтық комиссиясының хабары". gov.egov.kz (in Kazakh). 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
11. "Алматы қаласы аумақтық комиссиясының хабары". gov.egov.kz (in Kazakh). 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2021-01-26.