(ANSA) - MOSCOW, 10 JAN - Kazakhstan goes to the polls for parliamentary elections amid strong tensions given the absence of opposition between the lists.
At least one party that was not allowed to participate in the election was planning an afternoon rally in the capital, Nur-Sultan.
This was reported by Radio Liberty, according to which critics of the government are already calling for "protests at the national level".
The Nur Otan party of former president Nursultan Nazarbaev, in government since 1999, is expected to maintain its dominant position in the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament.
Together with Nur Otan (Patria Radiosa), four other political parties loyal to the government - Adal (Honest), Auyl (Village), Ak Zhol (Path of Light) and the Popular Party (former Popular Communist Party) - participate in the elections.
The only officially registered political party that labels itself as an opposition group, the National Social Democratic Party (OSDP), announced in November to boycott the elections because Kazakhstan's political landscape continues to be dominated by the "same" political elite.
According to the Central Electoral Commission, nearly 12 percent of voters voted at around 10 am.
Following the elections, at the invitation of the Kazakh Embassy in Rome and the Kazakh representation in Brussels, there are some Italian parliamentarians - Giovanni Russo (M5S) and Andrea Delmastro delle Vedove (FDI) and the MEP Fulvio Martusciello (FI), president of the Delegation to the EU-Kazakhstan, EU-Kyrgyzstan, EU-Uzbekistan and EU-Tajikistan parliamentary cooperation committees and for relations with Turkmenistan and Mongolia.
(HANDLE).