CSTO PA Observer Mission Formed for the Elections to the Kurultai in Kazakhstan

On the eve of the elections to Kazakhstan’s new unicameral parliament, scheduled for August 23, 2026, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly has officially formed its international observer mission. 

The monitoring will cover all key stages of the electoral cycle, from verification of voter lists to the vote-counting process.

The delegation will be led by Russian parliamentarian Andrei Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defence Committee of the State Duma. 

Four more legislators will represent the interests of the CSTO Member States. Eduard Severin from Belarus (Committee on Human Rights and the Media); Nilufar Alimzhanova from Kyrgyzstan (Committee on Ecology and Natural Resource Management); Bair Zhamsuyev from Russia (deputy Chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee) and Zarina Idizoda from Tajikistan (Committee on Constitutional Foundations and Civil Rights). Sergei Pospelov, Executive Secretary of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, Viktor Rogalev, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the CSTO PA, and staff members of the CSTO PA Secretariat will be a part of the mission. 

Following the observation of the elections to the Kurultai, the Assembly’s monitoring group will draw up a final report on the compliance of the elections with international democratic standards.

The upcoming elections will be the tenth parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan since 1991 and the first elections to the Kurultai, established in accordance with Kazakhstan’s new Constitution, adopted by a constitutional referendum in 2026. The referendum proceedings were also monitored by a CSTO Parliamentary Assembly observer group.