However, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party remains the overwhelming force in the legislature, winning 80.7 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election.
Nur Otan had held all elected seats in the previous 107-member parliament. Nine deputies are nominated by a presidential advisory body.
According to results released by the Central Elections Commission, two other parties got slightly more than 7 percent each of the nationwide vote, clearing the threshold for gaining seats. They are the business-oriented Ak Zhol, which avoids confrontation with the government, and the People’s Communist Party.
The All-National Social Democratic Party, which was the only robust government critic among the seven parties competing, said it did not recognize the legitimacy of the election and plans protest meetings. It tallied 1.6 percent of the vote.