Electoral system for national legislature

Kazakhstan, Constitutional Act of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan, (1999, last amended in 2019), accessed 13 January 2021

Article 21(3). At elections of the President of the Republic and the Mazhilis deputies to be elected on the basis of the party lists under the proportional representation system the whole territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall be considered as a single national constituency.

Article 97-1.    Distribution of deputy mandates based on the results of voting by party lists

1. The Central Election Commission shall sum up the votes of voters cast in the territory of the single national constituency per each party list that has received seven and more percents of votes from the total number of the voters who have taken part in voting. The sum of votes cast for political parties, who overcame seven percent threshold shall be divided to the number of distributed deputy mandates. The received result shall be the first election quotient (quota).

2. If seven percent of votes of voters, who have taken part in voting, has been received only by one political party, then the party list of this political party as well as the party list of the party, which has received the next largest number of votes of voters, who have taken part in voting, shall be admitted to distribution of deputy mandates.

The sum of votes cast for two political parties shall be divided to the number of distributed deputy mandates. The received result shall be the first election quota.

3. The number of votes received by each party list admitted to the distribution of deputy mandates shall be divided by the first election quotient (quota).

The number of votes received by party list, which has not overcome the seven percent threshold and has been admitted to the distribution of deputy mandates in accordance with clause 2 of this Article shall divided by the first election quota and multiplied by a correction index of 0.7.

The integral exponent received as a result of dividing the number shall be the number of deputy mandates, which the corresponding political party that formed by the party list has received.

A political party, which has not overcome the seven percent threshold and has been admitted to the distribution of deputy mandates in accordance with clause 2 of this Article shall receive no less than two mandates.

4. If after the actions made according to clause 3 of this Article there are undistributed mandates, they shall be subject to the second distribution. The undistributed mandates shall be distributed by one between the same party lists which have the largest fractional exponent (remainder) of the number received in the result of division in compliance with clause 3 of this Article. In case of equality of the largest fractional exponent (remainder), the advantage shall be given to the party list, which has been registered earlier.

During distribution of mandates according to clause 2 of this Article undistributed mandates shall be given to that party list, which as a result of voting has overcome the seven percent threshold.

5. The sequence of distribution of deputy mandates shall be determined by the governing body of a political party from candidates included into the party list according to clause 4 Article 89 of this Constitutional Act within ten days from the date of publication of the election results.

If the governing body of the political party has failed to determine the sequence of distribution of the received deputy mandates within the deadlines fixed in the first paragraph of this clause, the Central Election Commission shall take a decision with regards to distribution of deputy mandates received by party according to the registered lists in the alphabetic order in the state language.

6. In case of early retirement of the deputy, the Central Election Commission shall take a decision to transfer his/her mandate to the next candidate to be nominated by the governing body of the political party from candidates included in the party list in compliance with clause 5 of this Constitutional Act.

In case if there are no more candidates in the corresponding party list, the mandate shall remain vacant till the next election of Mazhilis deputies.