Azernews.Az

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Wednesday called snap parliamentary polls for January 15 in a bid to freshen up a legislature that only contains loyalists of the ruling party, AFP reported.

Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since before the collapse of the Soviet Union, ordered the immediate dissolution of parliament in a dramatic move that had first been rumoured only a few days ago.

"I decree... to dissolve the Mazhilis parliament of Kazakhstan... and call snap elections for deputies of the Mazhilis elected through party lists for January 15, 2012," Nazarbayev said in a decree published on his website.

He called for the country's central election commission to "organise the preparation and holding of snap elections." As is customary in Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev ordered the move after receiving a petition from loyalist deputies requesting the measure.

The president had said at a meeting the day earlier with backers of the petition that parliament was in need of renewal to continue the country's democratic development, his press service said.

Currently, all the seats in the Mazhilis are held by supporters of the ruling Nur Otan Party, and Nazarbayev said parliament should have at least two parties.

Accused by critics of authoritarianism, Nazarbayev has pledged political reforms for his overwhelmingly Muslim but secular nation after being re-elected in April for a third decade in power with over 95 percent of the vote.

"The democratic vector of Kazakhstan's political development must be steadfastly realised," Nazarbayev said on Tuesday. "The renewal of parliament is needed for the extensive modernisation that we are undergoing".

Kazakhstan had been due to hold legislative elections in summer 2012 but the country has become known in the last years for repeatedly calling snap polls ahead of schedule.

Lauded by his supporters as a Central Asian equivalent of great national leaders like Turkey's Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or India's Mahatma Gandhi, Nazarbayev has dominated Kazakhstan for over two decades.

His advisors have warned against comparing his administration to the long-lasting regimes toppled in the Arab Spring. But the request by deputies for the polls made an apparent nod to the political turbulance across the world.

"The world is in an unstable state. Kazakhstan is enjoying stable economic growth and it is important to preserve this tendency by accelerating the electoral cycle and ensure continuity in polices," they said in the petition.

The announcement also comes at a time of unusual unrest in Kazakhstan, which under Nazarbayev's rule has boasted being by far the most stable state in the turbulent Central Asia region.

Seven people were killed on Saturday in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz when a suspected Islamist went on a shooting rampage and then blew himself up, the most serious in a series of attacks blamed on Muslim extremists.