The early election may minimise risks from a potential deterioration of the economy and loss of public support amid geopolitical turbulence in the region, analysts say.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called an early presidential election, pressing ahead with a plan he announced earlier this month.
The snap elections are to take place on November 20, according to a decree published by his office, on Wednesday.
The vote, which he is likely to win, will cut his current term, but will give him a longer second term after a recent constitutional reform in the oil-rich Central Asian nation changed it to seven years from five.
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev calls for snap election in early months of 2023 pic.twitter.com/EVIcxOGHQe
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) September 5, 2022
Analysts say holding an early election minimises risks from a potential deterioration of the economy and loss of public support amid geopolitical turbulence in the broader post-Soviet region.
It also gives Tokayev a head start after he implemented a series of reforms, announced a minimum wage increase and other handouts, and parted ways with his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev.
READ MORE: Can Europe receive Kazakh oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline?
Post-Nazarbayev politics
Nazarbayev, who had run Kazakhstan for three decades, formally handed over the reins to Tokayev in 2019, but remained a powerful figure until last January when Tokayev took over as head of the country's security council amid violent unrest.
A number of Nazarbayev's relatives have since lost prominent public sector jobs and several businessmen close to him have been arrested and have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to the state which the authorities now say they had gained illegally.
READ MORE: Kazakhstan changes capital's name from Nur-Sultan back to Astana
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