Kazakhstan to hold Kurultai elections in August 2026

Elections to the unicameral Kurultai, the planned new parliament of Kazakhstan, will take place in August 2026, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has announced.

According to Tokayev, the decree setting the election date will be signed once the new Constitution comes into force. He said the early announcement was intended to give political parties around five months to prepare for the vote, Caliber.Az reports via Kazakh media.

The president said the elections would mark the beginning of a broad restructuring of Kazakhstan’s political system, stressing that political and economic reforms should proceed in parallel with positive social change.

Under the planned reforms, Kazakhstan would remain a presidential republic but significantly alter its system of representative governance. The current bicameral parliament is set to be replaced by a unicameral Kurultai, with members elected through a proportional representation system based on party lists. First-past-the-post constituencies would be retained only at the local level.

Additional changes include the planned creation of a vice-presidential post and the merger of the National Kurultai and the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan into a new advisory body called the People’s Council, which would serve in an advisory capacity to the president.

By Sabina Mammadli