The legislative and political system is a living organism that is constantly evolving and renewing itself. In particular, the country's electoral system and legislation are being improved.
In accordance with the amendments to the law, elections to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis are now held using a mixed electoral system.
What electoral systems are there in the world? And what does a mixed electoral system mean?
1. In a majoritarian electoral, voters cast their vote for one person. The candidates for deputies are listed on the ballot paper. Until 2024, our country had a plurality voting system.
2. In a proportional representation system, voters cast their votes for political parties. The political parties win seats in Parliament in proportion to the percentage of votes they received in the elections.
3. The mixed electoral system is the result of the harmonization of the plurality voting system and the proportional representation system. This means that one part of Parliament is elected based on plurality voting and the other part on proportional representation.
Under the previous electoral system, the 150 members of the Legislative Chamber were elected in the constituencies according to the plurality voting system. This meant that voters voted for the candidates for deputies listed on the ballot paper.
In this year's elections, 75 deputies of the Legislative Chamber will be elected as before under the plurality voting system, while the remaining 75 will be elected under the new proportional representation system. Under this system, voters vote for the parties identified on the ballot paper.
In previous elections, voters were given 3 types of ballot papers - for elections to the Legislative Chamber, for elections to the Regional Council (Kengash) of People's Deputies and for elections to the District Council (Kengash) of People's Deputies. While voters previously voted with these ballot papers, under the new electoral system citizens now receive 4 ballot papers each. In addition to the 3 ballot papers mentioned above, there will be an additional ballot paper for the election of the Legislative Chamber, on which the names of the political parties will appear. Voters can use this ballot paper to vote for the political parties they support.
A mixed electoral system has a number of advantages:
- every vote of the electorate is taken into account in the election of deputies;
- relations between political parties and voters are strengthened and citizens are made more familiar with the activities of political parties;
- favorable conditions are created for the election of qualified professionals;
- vacant deputy seats can be filled quickly, the costs of elections are reduced and the state budget is spared.
The new electoral system is therefore an important step towards the democratization of society.
