Presidential elections in Kazakhstan

By: V-Dem Staff
Apr 28, 2015


In the V-Dem conceptual scheme, electoral democracy is understood as an essential element of any other conception of democracy and freedom of association plays an importnat role. Indicators such as Party Ban, Multiparty Elections and Civil Society Organisation repression on the graph below can help to get an overview of situation in Kazakhstan. 

2012 was a year of early parliamentary elections. One of the parties, the main competitor to the party of power, was banned from taking part. Yet unlike prior, 2007 elections, three parties made it into the parliament while in 2007 it ended with one party taking all seats. One can see that since 2010 more parties have been banned, that there has been an increase in repression of civil society organizations’ engagement even though multi-party elections still exist.