Kazakh President Announces Summer Parliamentary Elections, Calls for Youth Parliament

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 Basic Law.

"A large-scale campaign has been conducted. We have a lot of work ahead. 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.

The announcement follows the completion of a nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments held on March 15th. According to exit poll data from various sociological institutes, support for the new Constitution was high.

Preliminary figures indicated strong voter turnout throughout the day of the referendum. By 2:00 PM local time, participation had surpassed the required threshold with over 6.4 million citizens casting their votes, representing a turnout of more than 51%.

By the close of polling stations at 8:00 PM, approximately 9.1 million people had participated. The Central Referendum Commission recorded a preliminary turnout of 73.24%.

The final results of the referendum are to be officially announced by March 21st.