Astana, 19 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) — Early parliamentary elections were under way in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan on Sunday.

Polling stations in the central Asian country, which has two time zones, are scheduled to close on Sunday at 8 pm (1400 or 1500 GMT).

The country of 19 million inhabitants is still reeling from severe protests last year, which President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev brutally suppressed in many places and which led to the deaths of more than 200 people.

Critics accuse Tokayev, who is regarded as authoritarian, of primarily wanting to consolidate his own power through the early elections.

In the run-up to the elections, Tokayev initiated several reforms and promised a process of democratization. As a result, all 98 members of Kazakhstan's lower house of parliament are now directly elected.

International election observers have praised some of the innovations, such as the lowering of the threshold for entering parliament from 7% to 5% and the admission of non-party candidates.

At the same time, they have criticised a lack of press freedom and freedom of opinion.

Dimash Alzhanov, an independent Kazakh political scientist, also accuses those in power of hardly allowing genuine opposition candidates.

Apart from the ruling Amanat party, the other six parties running were largely loyal to the government, Alzhanov told dpa, predicting that parliament would remain overwhelmingly loyal to Tokayev.

In January 2022, protests against high prices and social injustice had turned into an unprecedented power struggle between Kazakh elites in the oil-rich country, which borders both Russia and China.

Tokayev emerged victorious, ousting the former long-time president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

About 10 months after the suppression of the unrest, with the help of Russian troops, Tokayev had himself confirmed in office in an early presidential election - and then called new parliamentary elections.

Kazakhstan has been in the spotlight in the context of Russia's war of against Ukraine.

Despite Kazakhstan being considered a close ally of Russia, Tokayev made it clear at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin a few months ago that he continued to recognize the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk — annexed by Moscow in violation of international law — as Ukrainian.