Dominant party wins most votes in Kazakh parliament election

MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s dominant political party has received slightly more than half the vote in Sunday’s election for the lower house of parliament. Preliminary results were announced Monday, but the final tally of seats won’t be clear until new single-mandate races are tallied. As part of a series of political reforms in the Central Asian nation, one-third of the seats chosen in the snap election were contested by individual candidates; previously, all seats were selected by party list. The national elections commission said the Amanat party of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev received 53.9% of the vote on Sunday; five other parties cleared the 5% barrier needed to obtain seats, including parties loyal to Tokayev.