With elections to Kazakhstan’s restructured parliament about three months away, a new political party has just entered the contest.

Not surprisingly, it is a pro-presidential party.

The 8th political party

The Adilet (Justice) Party, not to be confused with the earlier Adilet Democratic Party that existed from 2004 to 2013, held its founding congress in Astana on May 7. The approximately 1,000 delegates at the congress elected Aybek Dadabay to be party chairman.

Dadabay was Kazakhstan’s presidential administration head from February 2024 until May 5 this year, when President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev relieved him of the post, making First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar his successor.

Roman Sklyar has switched from the position of first deputy prime minister to head of the presidential administration (Credit: primeminister.kz).

Dadabay provided few details about the party in his congress speech, saying only that Adilet would work to “strengthen trust between the state and citizens and to build a political culture rooted in dialogue and responsibility.”

Among the people on Adilet’s 40-member political council are Children's Rights Commissioner Dinara Zhkiyeva, head of the Presidential Television and Radio Complex Raushan Kazhibayeva, head of Kazakhtelecom Bagdat Musin and the Governor of Astana International Financial Centre(AIFC) Renat Bekturov.

Adilet joins a list of pro-government political parties that have appeared shortly before parliamentary elections.

The political parties already registered in Kazakhstan are Amanat, Auyl, Respublica, the People’s Party of Kazakhstan, the Baytak green party, Ak Jol, and the Nationwide Social Democratic Party.

Join the club

The upcoming parliamentary elections are necessitated by the passing of a new constitution in the national referendum held in March this year that, among other changes, approved transforming the bicameral parliament to unicameral. The new body will be called the Kuriltai and have 145 seats.

All the deputies will be elected according to party lists and only registered parties can field candidates.

In the March 19, 2023 elections to the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, 29 of the 98 seats were decided in single-mandate districts, though 23 of them came from the Amanat Party and the other six were seen as government loyalists.

Kazakhstan conducted snap parliamentary elections in March 2023 after the country conducted a national referendum in June 2022 that changed 33 of the 98 articles in the constitution.

At the end of November 2022, the Justice Ministry registered the ecological party Baytaq (Extensive or Vast) and in January 2023 the Respublica Party was registered. Respublica went on to win six seats in the March 2023 parliamentary elections, but Baytaq failed to win any and is currently the only registered party without representatives in parliament.

The creation of pro-government parties just before elections in Kazakhstan goes back to the end of the last century.

On January 10, 1999, Nursultan Nazarbayev won a second term as Kazakhstan’s president in an early election. A referendum in 1995 extended Nazarbayev’s term in office, allowing him to avoid the scheduled 1996 presidential election until 2000, but he used a constitutional amendment in October 1998 to push through a snap election.

Three days after Nazarbayev’s re-election in January 1999, his campaign manager, former prime minister Sergei Tereshchenko, announced the impending formation of the Otan (Fatherland) party that was dedicated to seeing Nazarbayev re-elected in the next presidential election.

But first, the Otan Party went on to win the majority of seats in the October 1999 parliamentary elections, and under the name Nur-Otan (renamed in 2006), and more recently Amanat (renamed in 2022), the party has won the majority of seats in all the parliamentary elections since then.

The People’s Party of Kazakhstan, originally the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan was registered in June 2004, ahead of the October 2004 parliamentary elections. The party did not win any seats in those elections, but its purpose was to siphon off support from the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (CPK) that had endured after Kazakhstan’s 1991 independence.

This proved successful as the CPK joined a coalition movement with two other parties ahead of the December 2005 snap presidential election to oppose Nazarbayev, who went on to win anyway. The CPK gradually faded out and, in 2012, its activities were banned. That was the same year the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan won its first seats (seven) in parliamentary elections and the party, renamed the People’s Party of Kazakhstan in 2020, has won seats in all the parliamentary elections since 2012.

Ak Zhol (Bright Path) is the other political party that has won at least one seat in all the elections since 2004. In the 2012 elections, Ak Jol won eight seats, in the 2016 elections, seven seats, in the 2021 elections, 12 seats, and in the 2023 election, six seats.

Ak Zhol was formed in 2002 to split the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement, led by former government officials and businessmen and was initially very popular and a potential threat to Nazarbayev.

No changes expected

Of the eight registered political parties, only the Nationwide Social Democratic Party calls itself an opposition party and its recent credentials do not convincingly support such a claim. The party did win four seats in the 2023 elections, but its purpose seems to be to create the illusion that an opposition party is registered and has successfully competed in recent elections.

The Alga (Forward), Kazakhstan! Party is a genuine opposition party, and has been trying to register since April 2022. It has continually faced difficulties and was rejected registration for the 26^th time at the end of 2025.

The new Adilet Party will no doubt be fast-tracked as were Baytaq, Respublica, the People’s Party of Kazakhstan, Ak Zhol and Otan.

Amendments to the constitution in 2022 and 2025 were supposed to end the era of the super-presidency created by first president Nazarbayev and give parliament more power.

But as long as the only candidates allowed to compete in parliamentary elections are members of registered pro-presidential political parties, the country remains firmly under the control of the president.

Underscoring that fact, Tokayev said the parliamentary elections will be in August, but he still hasn’t named the exact day.