Kazakh President Tokayev Announces Parliamentary Elections for Summer

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has announced that parliamentary elections will be held this summer. He made the statement during a meeting with young people who actively participated in the recent constitutional referendum.

The President emphasized that the new Constitution is oriented primarily towards youth. He noted that fundamental concepts such as volunteer work, science, innovation, and artificial intelligence have been incorporated into the country's Basic Law.

"A large-scale campaign has been conducted. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Parliamentary elections will be held in the summer, and we must conduct them cohesively, as a single country. I believe this should become a parliament of youth," Tokayev stated.

Tokayev also announced a new date for Constitution Day, stating that this day will forever remain in the nation's history.

The announcement follows the completion of the nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments held on March 15th. Preliminary exit poll results indicated strong public support for the changes.

According to data from various sociological institutes, support for the new Constitution ranged from approximately 86.7% to 88.6% of voters surveyed.

The referendum saw significant voter participation across Kazakhstan. Over 12.4 million citizens were registered to vote at more than 10,300 polling stations within the country and an additional 71 stations at diplomatic missions abroad.

By 2:00 PM local time on voting day, turnout had already surpassed the required threshold with over 6.4 million people (51.93%) casting their ballots, officially validating the referendum. Final preliminary figures indicated a turnout of approximately 73.24%, with over 9.1 million citizens participating.

The official results of the referendum are expected to be announced by March 21st.