Jan 13 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan holds elections to the Mazhilis lower house of parliament on Sunday, months ahead of the planned August 2012 date.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev had said the country needs a "multi-party parliament" and that early elections will install a new government in time to deal with a looming economic crisis that could arrive later in the year.
In April 2011, Nazarbayev won a landslide victory in a presidential election, with 96 percent of the vote. This secured the former steelworker, who has prioritised economic growth and stability over democracy, five more years in office.
Below are some key facts about Kazakhstan:
* THE ELECTION:
-- Nur Otan, led by Nazarbayev, held all elected seats in the previous parliament after other parties failed to clear the 7 percent entry threshold in the 2007 election.
-- A legislative amendment since passed will exempt the party that comes second from that threshhold, ensuring that at least two parties will enter the new parliament.
-- Of the seats, 98 are directly elected from party lists and nine are chosen by the People's Assembly of Kazakhstan, an umbrella body of ethnic groups, in a vote scheduled for Jan. 16.
* THE ECONOMY:
-- Kazakhstan's economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2011, Prime Minister Karim Masimov said. The Eurasian Development Bank projected in its CIS Macromonitor reports that GDP growth will total 8.6 percent with inflation at 6 percent in 2012.
-- Official data shows that Kazakh exports of oil and gas condensate were worth $42.2 billion in January-September of 2011, up 51.5 percent from the same period of 2010.
-- Foreign investors, who have poured more than $120 billion into Kazakhstan since independence, cite a lack of clarity over who will succeed Nazarbayev as the biggest investment risk.
* ENERGY: KazMunaiGas Exploration Production said on Dec. 21 it expects to meet its reduced oil production target for the year after police deployed armed security around the oilfield closest to the scene of Kazakhstan's deadliest riots in decades.
-- The London-listed oil producer said its Uzenmunaigas operations in western Kazakhstan were unscathed by the violence in the nearby town of Zhanaozen, where a months-long protest by sacked oil workers erupted into riots on Dec. 16.
-- Kazakhstan holds slightly over 3 percent of the world's recoverable oil reserves. The second-largest ex-Soviet oil producer after Russia, it has on average produced about 1.64 million barrels per day of crude oil in 2011, International Energy Agency data showed.
COUNTRY DETAILS:
* POPULATION: Over 16.6 million.
* ETHNICITY: Kazakhs form 63.1 percent of the population, Russians 23.7 percent, Ukrainians 2.1 percent and Uzbeks 2.8 percent. There are also sizeable Uighur, Tatar and German minorities.
* LANGUAGE: Kazakh is the state language. Russian is the widely used official language.
* RELIGION: Kazakhstan is a secular state. About 70 percent of the population is Muslim and a sizeable minority is Russian Orthodox.
-- There have been signs of rising instability and Islamist militancy, both before and after new legislation adopted in October that bans prayer rooms in state buildings. Nazarbayev has backed the law as a means of stamping out religious extremism.
* CORRUPTION - Kazakhstan came 120th of 183 countries in Tranparency International's 2011 corruption index along with Iran, Ethiopia and several others.
* DEVELOPMENT - Between 1980 and 2011, Kazakhstan's life expectancy at birth increased by 2.1 years to 67, mean years of schooling increased by 4.3 years and expected years of schooling increased by 3.5 years. Kazakhstan's GNI per capita increased by about 137.0 per cent between 1995 and 2011.
Sources: Reuters/Economist/Tranparency International/UNHDI (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
