NUR-SULTAN / EX ASTANA (TASS) — On Monday, the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament elected Dariga Nazarbayeva as Senate Speaker, Chairman of the Senate’s Counting Commission Alimjan Kurtayev announced after a secret ballot.

Dariga Nazarbayeva

Dariga Nazarbayeva is the eldest daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s first president.
(© Piotr Kovalev / TASS)

“There were 48 ballots in favour [of Nazarbayeva]. No one voted against or abstained. Dariga Nazarbayeva was thus elected chairperson of Kazakhstan’s Senate”, he stated.

Nazarbayeva was nominated by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. She is the eldest daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s first president.

The Senate’s speaker is elected at a house meeting from among the lawmakers who are fluent in the state language by secret ballot by a majority of votes of the total number of the house’s members.

On August 12, Tokayev extended Nazarbayeva’s parliamentary powers since they were about to expire. On March 20, Nazarbayeva, 56, who had earlier served as the head of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, Defence and Security, was unanimously elected the Senate’s speaker.