Nur Otan

The Nur Otan ( Kazakh Нұр Отан " Shining Fatherland" or "Light of the Fatherland "; Russian Нур Отан ) is the largest Party of Kazakhstan, with approximately 700,000 members.

The Chairman is the President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Nur Otan, therefore, the President's party. Since the party is closely linked to the state apparatus and currently has 83 of 107 seats in the lower house, it is also the Unity Party. It has its headquarters in the Kazakh capital Astana.

At international level, works Nur Otan together with the Russian Kremlin United Russia party.

History

The party was officially registered on 12 February 1999 as Otan. It emerged from a number of parties, which announced its dissolution. In 2006, the party merged with Otan Assar. In December of the same year, two other parties, the Agrarian Party joined with 102,000 members, and the Civic Party with 160,000 members, the Otan, and the name of the party was changed to Nur Otan.

In the parliamentary elections in August 2007, she won 88 percent of the vote, because none of the opposition parties could overcome the seven- percent threshold, all the 98 parliamentary seats. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ) said the election did not meet international standards, especially in the counting process and the implementation of new legislation. The opposition parties did not recognize the result and spoke of massive manipulation. The party reacted calmly to criticism. Bakyzhan Schumagulow, deputy chairman of the party said to the manipulation allegations: Hardly anything could care less.

In the parliamentary elections in January 2012, Nur Otan won 80.99 % of votes. First time in over eight years attracted again representatives of opposition parties in the Kazakh parliament, including the Democratic Party Ak Schol with eight and the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan with seven deputies. Nevertheless, the party Nur Otan has 83 of 107 seats in parliament and thus can govern alone. The OSCE criticized the election had failed to meet democratic standards, although they were well organized. The opposition condemned the elections as fraudulent and again announced protests.