Kazakhstan's government resigns as the first Kurultai sits in Astana

Kazakhstan's cabinet resigned on Friday as the new unicameral parliament, the Kurultai, held its first session in Astana. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree instructing the outgoing government, led by Olzhas Bektenov, to keep working until a new composition is approved. Article 69 of the constitution adopted this year requires the government to lay down its powers before a newly elected Kurultai.

All 145 deputies attended. Tokayev opened the first convocation and called it a new stage in the country's development. In a secret ballot the chamber elected Aibek Dadebay as speaker. Tokayev had proposed the name. Dadebay has led the Adilet party since 7 May.

Adilet won 71.17 percent of the vote on 23 August, 6,528,948 ballots. That share translates to 110 of 145 seats. Auyl took 6.26 percent, Respublica 5.56 percent, Ak Zhol 5.21 percent and the National Social Democratic Party 5.11 percent. All five parties crossed the threshold.

What replaced the old parliament

The March 2026 constitution, approved in a nationwide referendum on 15 March and in force from 1 July, abolished the Senate and the Mazhilis. In their place sits a single house named Kurultai, an older Turkic word for an assembly. Deputies serve five years. Tokayev first floated the change in his September 2025 state-of-the-nation address.

The last Senate plenary of the old order sat on 29 June. From 1 July the bicameral structure ceased. The president then had a month to call elections and two further months to hold them. Sunday 23 August was that poll. Thursday 27 August the Central Electoral Commission registered the new members. Friday they sat.

The change of name and chamber count is real. The change of function is less clear. Oliver Fisk, writing in The Diplomat on 28 August, noted that Tokayev spent the week before the opening setting the incoming house an agenda built from existing state priorities. The form is new. The list of tasks is familiar.

Money already on the table

Deputy prime minister Serik Zhumangarin has said the government plans to withdraw nearly 12 trillion tenge, about $26.2 billion, from the National Fund. That is the sovereign wealth fund built on oil. Last summer the cabinet pledged to reduce those transfers through 2028 so the budget would lean less on hydrocarbons. The new withdrawal runs the other way.

That number will be one of the first tests of the Kurultai. A house with 110 Adilet deputies is not built for surprise. It is built for speed. Tokayev's public instruction was to raise the quality of legislation and to modernise administration. The fiscal choice on the National Fund will show whether those phrases constrain the cabinet or decorate it.

Who holds the posts

Bektenov's ministers remain in place on a caretaker basis. Dadebay holds the speakership. Adilet holds the majority. Tokayev holds the presidency and the right to name the next prime minister for the house to confirm. The election result was not a shock. Adilet is the pro-government vehicle created for this cycle. The permitted opposition parties took the remaining 35 seats between them.

OSCE-style language about contestation does not describe this ballot well. What the ballot did do is complete the constitutional rewrite that began in March. Kazakhstan now has one chamber, one dominant party, a speaker chosen from that party on the president's suggestion, and a cabinet that resigned on schedule and stayed at its desks.

The next document to watch is the decree that names the new government. Until that text appears, Bektenov's team signs the papers and the Kurultai learns its rules. The 12 trillion tenge question will not wait for the ceremony to end.