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Concept
Parliament of Kazakhstan
Summary
The Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Qazaqstan Respublikasynyñ Parlamentı; Парламент Республики Казахстан) is the bicameral legislature of Kazakhstan. The lower house is the Mäjilis, with 98 seats which are elected to five-year terms. The upper house is the Senate, which has 50 members.
In early autumn 1994, journalist and ex-candidate for the Supreme Council of Kazakhstan Tatyana Kvyatkovskaya filed a lawsuit demanding to nullify the results of the 1994 Kazakh legislative election. After lengthy trials in March 1995, the then-existing Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan, despite the objections by President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Supreme Council Chairman Abish Kekilbayev, recognized Kvyatkovskaya's claims as justified on 6 March 1995. As a result of court's ruling, Nazarbayev issued a decree on 11 March which dissolved the Supreme Council where all its adopted bills were declared as "invalid." From there, Kazakhstan had no legislature, and instead all the laws were adopted on the basis of Presidential Decrees.
On 30 August 1995, a constitutional referendum was held where Kazakhstani voted for a new draft for the Constitution of Kazakhstan which established a new bicameral Parliament that included the Mazhilis and Senate. Elections for the Senate were held for first time on 5 December 1995 which was then followed by two-round Mazhilis elections on 9 December and 23 December 1995. The Parliament convened in its first session on 30 January 1996.
In May 2007, the Parliament amended many changes to Constitution such as changing the election system for the Mazhilis from mixed-member proportional representation to party-list proportional representation and changing presidential term limits from 7 to 5 years. However, it paved a way for more authoritarianism as it exempted President Nursultan Nazarbayev from term limits which allowed him to remain as a President for life. In the following 2007 Kazakh legislative elections, pro-government Nur Otan party swept all the contested seats in the Mazhilis which eliminated any opposition and turned the country into a one-party state for brief period until minor parties made their return in 2012.
Official source
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