2007 Kazakh legislative election

Legislative elections were held in Kazakhstan on 18 August 2007 to elected. President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling Nur Otan party received 88% of the vote and won all of the available seats (excluding the reserved 9-seat quota for the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan), as none of the six other parties contesting the election had managed to pass the 7% electoral threshold to win seats.

Background
On 19 June 2007 50 of the 77 deputies of the Mäjilis voted to request President Nursultan Nazarbayev for the legislature to be dissolved after a ruling by the Constitutional Council from 18 June that the Mäjilis can dissolve itself only with the permission of the president despite the Kazakh Constitution allowing the parliament to do so in a motion of no confidence. Nazarbayev accepted the request that same day and the Mäjilis was officially dissolved on 20 June. The move was criticized by several prominent opposition activists such as the chairman of Nationwide Social Democratic Party, Zharmakhan Tuyakbay, who claimed that the a snap election gave little time to prepare for the polling day.

Electoral system
A total of 107 seats were at stake in the Majilis, an increase of 30, following constitutional amendments earlier in the year. Under the changes, 98 deputies were elected by party lists, an increase from just 10 in the previous parliament. The remaining nine seats were reserved for members elected by the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan.

Conduct
The opposition Nationwide Social Democratic Party, which received almost 5% of the vote, denounced the election, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers said the election showed some progress, but was also marred by problems, saying that "in over 40 percent of the polling stations visited, [vote counting] was described as bad or very bad", which was worse than in the last parliamentary and presidential elections. Bias in the state media was also considered a problem.