ASTANA (Kazakhstan): Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dissolved the Central Asian country’s lower house of parliament on Thursday and set an early election for March 19, his office said. The announcement comes a year after Kazakhstan descended into chaos with deadly riots that killed 238 people in January 2022. “On 19 January, 2023 the head of state by decree dissolved the Majilis of Kazakhstan’s parliament,” the presidency said in a statement.

It added that he scheduled a snap parliamentary election for March 19. He also dissolved the vast country’s local legislatures. The move is in line with a 2022 constitutional reform after three decades of Tokayev’s predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev in power. The octogenarian strongman resigned in 2019.

In a message to Kazakhs released by the presidency, Tokayev said he hoped the snap elections “will give new impetus to the modernisation” of the ex-Soviet country rich in natural resources. Tokayev was re-elected in November, winning 80 percent of the votes after a campaign criticised for its lack of competition. He promised to create a “New Kazakhstan” that he said would be fairer. Tokayev has also promised to reform “all the main institutions of power”. But economic difficulties and authoritarian tendencies have remained under his leadership.

Kazakhstan has sought to maintain a balancing act in its ties with the West and Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

It has not joined international sanctions on Moscow, but the offensive has strained historically close ties and Tokayev has publicly criticised Russia’s landgrab in eastern Ukraine. On Thursday, a Kazakh lawmaker was dropped by his party over remarks in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, the Aq Jol party said in a statement.