Former Atyrau region governor elected as speaker of Kazakh parliament's lower house
ASTANA. March 26 (Interfax) - Members of the Majilis, or the lower house, of the 6th Kazakh parliament elected Baktikoja Izmuhambetov as the Majilis Speaker at the plenary meeting on Friday, an Interfax-Kazakhstan correspondent said.
Izmuhambetov is a former akim (head of the administration) of Kazakhstan's Atyrau region. He was elected to the Majilis from the Nur Otan party led by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
All 107 Majilis members backed his candidacy.
"The chairman will have two its deputies to be elected by the majority of the total number of Majilis members, as proposed by the chairman of the Kazakh parliament's Majilis. Therefore, I will use the authority delegated to me to propose candidacies of Vladimir Bozhko and Gulmira Isimbayeva for the elections of the deputy speakers," Izmuhambetov said.
This proposal was upheld unanimously by Majilis members.
Before being elected a Majilis member from the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, Bozhko held the position of the Kazakh Deputy Interior Minister. Prior to that, he spent almost seven years leading the Kazakh Emergency Situations Ministry. Isimbayeva was a member of the 5th Kazakh parliament. She has been elected to the new Majilis on the Nur Otan party list.
The election of the new Majilis was held in Kazakhstan on March 20-21.
Six parties took part in the election on March 20, but only three of them - the Nazarbayev-led Nur Otan party (84 seats), the "Ak Zhol" Democratic Party of Kazakhstan (seven seats) and the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan (seven seats) - managed to clear the 7-percent threshold and make in into the Majilis. Another nine Majilis members were elected through the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan on March 21.