Members of Kazakh Parliament go on summer recess

The members of the Kazakh Parliament went on holiday. A joint session of its two houses took place today, which summed up the main results of the year. During the first session, the MPs submitted more than 270 inquiries and considered 104 bills, 63 of which have already been adopted and 58 were signed by the President of the country, Chairperson of the Mazhilis Nurlan Nigmatulin said. Most importantly, the electoral legislation was amended, and to be more precise, the threshold for political parties to enter the Mazhilis was lowered from 7 percent to 5 percent, a new ballot option ‘None of the Above’ was introduced, and from now residents of rural districts will choose their local governors themselves. In addition, amendments were adopted on land relations, according to which Kazakh agricultural land is prohibited from being sold or leased to foreigners.

“This session of the Parliament has been filled with many historic events. In particular, as many before, many laws were adopted, which were initiated by the members of the two houses. Namely, these are issues related to the protection of citizens’ rights in criminal proceedings, anti-corruption and others. In addition, we have adopted many laws that enhance the well-being of our citizens, laws aimed at strengthening the economic status of our enterprises, our citizens,” said Andrei Lukin, Member of Senate, Upper House of Kazakh Parliament.

Kazakh MPs also continue to develop cooperation with the parliaments of more than 80 countries. Despite the pandemic, they supported inter-parliamentary dialogue, both in a bilateral format and at international platforms, the Speaker of the Mazhilis said. A total of about 170 international events with the participation of the Kazakh MPs were held during the first session of the Kazakh Parliament of the seventh convocation, he added.

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Editing by Saule Mukhamejanova