ASTANA (Kazakhstan): Oil-rich Kazakhstan, the most stable and prosperous of the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, voted on Saturday for a new parliament in an election closely watched for signs of the country’s commitment to democracy.

Previous elections in post-Soviet Kazakhstan have been assessed as being less than free and fair by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. But President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has led Kazakhstan for 18 years, wants it to win the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2009.

The OSCE fielded more than 400 observers on Saturday, and is to announce its assessment of the vote on Sunday.

The country’s stability is important to regional powers Russia and China because of its substantial oil and gas reserves. The United States has also sought greater access to Kazakh energy resources.

Voters were choosing members of the lower house of parliament in an early election that was widely seen a manoeuvre by Nazarbayev to improve Kazakhstan’s democratic image while maintaining his own strong grip on power.

Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party is expected to sweep most of the 98 seats. But the opposition, which holds only one seat in the outgoing parliament, also is likely to slightly improve its representation.

All the seats are to be chosen on a party-list basis, distributed proportionately to parties that get more than seven per cent of the vote. Previously, only 10 seats were chosen on a party basis.

The change was part of a series of constitutional amendments pushed through by Nazarbayev in May that also removed all term limits for him and gave him the right to dissolve parliament virtually for any reason.

After voting on Saturday in the capital, Astana, Nazarbayev said the amendments were aimed at uniting the nation and “for the first time, we raise the authority of political parties”.

However, choosing the seats entirely by party list leaves small opposition groupings and independents virtually no chance of gaining seats.

Seven parties were participating in the vote, but only Nur Otan and the main opposition National Social Democratic Party were expected to pass the seven per cent threshold. The moderate opposition Ak Zhol appeared to have an outside chance of clearing the bar. The other four parties, all pro-government, are unlikely to get into parliament.

Nazarbayev has pledged “to do everything to make the elections free and fair”.—AP