Tokayev returns Bektenov as prime minister after Kazakhstan's new Kurultai sits

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev reappointed Olzhas Bektenov as prime minister of Kazakhstan on 31 August, three days after the new unicameral parliament, the Kurultai, held its first sitting. Deputies approved the nomination by 137 votes to 8, with 145 members present. Decree No. 1418, signed at Akorda the same day, makes the appointment formal. Bektenov has held the post since February 2024. He had tendered the government's resignation on 28 August, as the constitution requires after a legislative election. Ministers stayed on in a caretaker role until the vote.

The Kurultai is the chamber that replaced the old Majilis under Tokayev's latest institutional redesign. Voters elected all 145 members on 23 August. Turnout was 74.08 percent of 12,623,289 registered voters. Adilet, a new party led by Aibek Dadebai, won 6,528,948 votes, 71.17 percent, and 110 seats. Auyl took 10 seats, Respublica 9, Aq Jol 8 and the Nationwide Social Democratic Party 8. On 28 August the house elected Dadebai as speaker, unanimously, on Tokayev's nomination.

The same 31 August meeting produced a vice-president. Tokayev put forward Erlan Karin, a former presidential aide and, from 30 June, first deputy head of the Presidential Administration. One hundred and forty-one deputies voted for him. The constitution bars the vice-president from holding a legislative seat or a party card and puts him first in line if the president leaves office early.

Bektenov's earlier jobs include chief of the presidential administration and chair of the anti-corruption agency. Continuity is the message Tokayev sent to the new house: a new party label and a new chamber, the same head of government. Adilet's 110 seats mean the prime minister does not need a coalition arithmetic lesson. He needs the president's confidence, which the 31 August vote recorded.

Foreign desks will read the election as managed consolidation. Adilet did not exist at the 2023 poll. It now holds a majority large enough to pass any statute Tokayev wants. The older parties kept a foothold. None of them can block a government bill. Karin's election fills a post that matters only when a presidency ends early. Creating it and filling it on the same day as the prime minister's return is how Akorda writes succession paperwork in public.

Bektenov's second term starts with the files he already held: budget execution, the resource sector, and the relationship with Russia and China that any Kazakh cabinet lives inside. The Kurultai's first weeks will show whether Adilet behaves like a presidential vehicle or tries to look like a party with a programme. The 137 votes suggest the former.

Dated record: election 23 August; first sitting and government resignation 28 August; speaker Dadebai elected that day; Bektenov and Karin approved 31 August, 137 and 141 votes; decree 1418 signed at Akorda. Those are the steps that closed the post-election week in Astana.