Almaty, 29 October. One hundred and five people – 52 self-nominated and 53 put forward by political parties – have been nominated for the snap election to the Almaty city maslikhat in 21 single-member districts, according to the list of the Almaty territorial election commission; voting is set for 29 November.
The hopefuls include former Mazhilis deputy and ex-akim of three Almaty districts Bekkali Torgayev (nominated by the Respublica party), businessman from the Forbes ranking and director of Orbis Group Sukhrab Makhmudov (Adilet party), president of the National Consumer League of Kazakhstan Svetlana Romanovskaya and founder of the Lanzhou chain Gulbanu Maigarina. The list has many heads of clinics, schools and colleges and directors of private companies, as well as students and unemployed people. District No. 21 has the most hopefuls – nine.
Nominations closed on 27 October; election commissions register candidates until 1 November. Campaigning runs from 1 to 28 November, 28 November is a day of silence, and voting takes place on 29 November from 07:00 to 20:00. In Astana 42 people filed documents for the city maslikhat election in 12 districts.
What it means: Almaty's city council is being re-elected in single-member districts, and the candidates include not only party members but also business people, heads of city institutions and civic activists.
Who benefits: Almaty residents – a chance to choose their own district's deputy, who will deal with the budget and urban improvement. Parties – a test of support in the country's largest city.
Background: A maslikhat is a local representative body that approves the city budget and development programmes. Forty-two deputies were elected to the previous Almaty maslikhat: half from party lists and half in single-member districts; in this election, according to the published list, deputies are elected in 21 single-member districts. The published materials do not say why the election is being held early. Almaty residents can find their polling station's boundaries and address on the territorial election commission's website.
