Kazakhstan's ruling party sweeps parliamentary polls

By Meiramgul Kussainova

NUR SULTAN (AA) - Kazakhstan's election authority announced the final results of the parliamentary elections held Sunday.

According to the country's Central Election Commission, the ruling Nur Otan Party led by former President Nursultan Nazarbayev ranked first with 71.9%, while the Ak Zhol Democratic Party second with 10.95% and the People's Party of Kazakhstan ranked third winning 9.10% of the votes.​​​​​​​

The Auyl People’s Democratic Patriotic Party received 5.29% of the votes, and the Adal party 3.57%.

While the number of total voters stands over 11.91 million, the turnout rate was 63.3%.

Kazakh voters headed to the polls to elect deputies for the lower chamber of the parliament for a five-year term.

The election was followed by nearly 400 observers from 30 countries and 10 international organizations, including delegations from the Turkic Council and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-Speaking States.

More than 310 candidates ran for 107 seats in the parliament from the ruling Nur Otan Party, Ak Zhol Democratic Party, Auyl People’s Democratic Patriotic Party and the Adal Party.

A total of 76 seats was secured by the Nur Otan Party, 12 by the Ak Zhol Democratic Party and 10 by the People's Party of Kazakhstan. The other nine deputies will be members of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar in Ankara