Kazakhstan to Spend More on Kurultai Elections Than Referendum

Kazakhstan’s Kurultai elections may cost more than the recent referendum, Central Election Commission Secretary Shavkat Utemisov said, Orda.kz reports.

According to him, there is no exact figure yet. The final cost will depend on the date of the campaign.

We cannot name exact figures now, but we believe it will be more expensive. We need to determine the date of the Kurultai elections. It depends on how many days we will have to prepare for the elections and how long commission members will work. Their salaries directly depend on this. A significant part of the funds goes toward paying commission members, and there are more than 70,000 of them across the country,Utemisov said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin also said the amount would be calculated after the election date is set.

This is a manageable amount, and it will not differ much from the previous one. All funds will be allocated from the national budget,Zhumangarin added.

For comparison, Kazakhstan allocated 21 billion tenge for the referendum on the new constitution.

Original author: Alina Elgeldina

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