[1] The elections were called after a plan for holding a referendum to increase president term limits to 2020 was rejected by the Constitutional Council.

[4] Although Nazarbayev rejected the proposal, it would still have gone ahead if 80% of the members of the parliament (100% controlled by his party) voted for it, or if a public petition obtained at least 200,000 signatures.

According to analysts, Nazarbayev may have stepped back from the plan of term extension due to negative reactions by both USA, EU and OSCE, and in order to buy five years time to settle succession issues.

[8] Twenty-two potential candidates were counted before the registration process began; their number was finally reduced to four, including no established opposition leaders.

[20] On March 2, RFE/RL reported severe disruption of access to its websites, allegedly linked to orders received by government-controlled service providers KazTelecom and Nursat.

[18] The OSCE received multiple reports of people being pressured to vote, and government officials were seen intimidating voters in universities, hospitals and military encampments.

Other kinds of reported violations include seemingly identical signatures on voter lists and numerous cases of ballot box-stuffing.