Tokayev's victory was marked as the first peaceful transition of power in Kazakhstan's history,[2] despite challenges resulting from the political unrest that took place in the streets of Almaty and Nur-Sultan.

[39] Tügel pledged to promote ideas of spiritual revival and raising of Kazakh culture and focus on the importance of improvements in the socio-cultural sphere that were made possible under Nazarbayev's presidency.

From there, Party Chairman Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to nominate acting president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for candidacy, calling him a "well-deserved candidate" that would follow "politics of friendship" and "equal rights of Kazakh citizens".

[48] At the meeting of the executive committee of the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan (QRKF) was held at which the issue of nominating candidates for participation in the elections from the organisation was discussed.

The members of the executive committee approved and submitted for consideration by the General Council on 23 April 2019 two candidates: former Mazhilis MP Muqtar Tinikeev and QRKF deputy chairman Amangeldi Taspihov.

[49] The following day on 24 April 2019, the QRKF General Council nominated Taspihov as presidential candidate after Tinikeev recused himself, due to his lack of knowledge of Kazakh per registrational requirement.

[58] On 26 April 2019, the party at the 14th Congress in Almaty announced that it would backdown and not participate in the presidential race in which according to JSDP deputy chairman Ashat Raqymjanov, was due to integrity of their holding and the short time given to prepare and conduct the campaign citing large financial strain.

[52] Parliamentary leader QKHP Aiqyn Qongyrov called Tokayev's move as a "logical decision", citing that "people need stability, so that there will be a person who will run the country in the next five years.

[63] Qongyrov at the congress, stated that each presidential nominee from the QKHP receives more and more support in which he used examples from the past races starting from 2005 where the party slowly went up its ranking in terms of vote place.

"[72] He pledged to continue his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev's policies in implementing the social programs, setting path for Kazakhstan's entry into the top 30 most developed countries in the world, to further implement Five Institutional Reforms–Plan of the Nation programme which would bring the nation to a new level of sustainable development, strengthening domestic political stability and social cohesion and stimulating the business activity of the population as well as eliminating intolerance and extremism, strengthen domestic political stability and social harmony, develop civil society, protections of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens, guaranteed safety of every person, protection of private property, support of domestic business, ensure the security of investments, stimulate the business activity of the population, protect national interests in the political, trade, economic, cultural, humanitarian spheres and implement a balanced, constructive foreign policy.

Qosanov brought up several environmental issues which included the drying of Aral Sea and the city of Semey which suffered the impacts of nuclear testing in Semipalatinsk during the Soviet Union.

[79] In spire of that, he received backlash and accusations amongst other opposition groups for allegedly collaborating with the authorities such as having campaign staff with a record of having pro-government views and to some extent being supporters of it; Qosanov dismissed these claims as being "rumours".

[84][85] In regards to corruption and low public trust in judicial system, Espaeva obliged to protect citizens from extortion of businesses by the authorities whom she called for them to be held accountable.

[86] Espaeva emphasised Kazakhstan's independence as a key value, telling that "our people, our land and its wealth that we inherited from our ancestors, our state language and the unity of our multinational society."

[88] He stressed the issue in Kazakhstan's society where young people are forced to leave villages and move into the cities, creating an unequal composition of the country's population between rural and urban areas.

[88] Raqymbekov mostly campaigned for rural issues and proposed solution in improving agricultural economy by which would help Kazakhstan to compete worldwide with its important exports and noting it would create more jobs in the villages by attracting young specialists and prevent the fleeing into urban cities.

[88] Amangeldi Taspihov's election platform included five main directives of which were: creating business reforms, ensured safe workplaces, increased workers’ rights, establish higher salaries and the fifth is to re-examine regulations concerning migrant labour.

[93] Ahmetbekov campaigned through populist approach by calling prosecution of oligarchs living abroad, mainly referring to exiled Kazakh businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov whom he accused of stealing government's budget that's used to fund social services.

[94] He expressed his support for free education, healthcare, pension payments, and a guaranteed right for work, rest and housing and noted that attention would be paid towards spiritual sphere, science, culture and morality.

[95] In combating the situation, Ahmetbekov proposed for Kazakhstan's own version of Facebook in which certain deemed "harming content" would be regulated in spite of his earlier oblige to support freedom of speech, democratic organisations and movements and opposition media in his electoral programme.

[98][99] In political issues, Tügel's platform consisted of nine main points: protecting people's honour and dignity, improving the country's demographics, supporting Kazakh diaspora whom are willing to return, strengthening the role of the Kazakh language, modernisation and development of Alash Autonomy ideologies, end in corruption, fixation in unemployment, death penalty for corrupt officials, nationalisation of resources, as well as a referendum for new Constitution.

[100] Tügel positioned himself as reformer and called for democratization within the political system such as the direct elections of äkıms (local heads) in all levels, a national unicameral Parliament in which the candidates for MP's could self-nominate themselves.

According to the statements, many of the campuses postponed the educational semesters to June in expense for students to show up at the polls, otherwise they'd face possible expulsion or systemic academic problems.

[115] On 9 May 2019, at the Victory Day, reports of internet blockages occurred with many news website such as Radio Azattyq and Ferghana Information Agency being inaccessible to the public as well as social media sites such as Facebook, Telegram, YouTube and Instagram.

[116][117] Johann Bihr, head of Reporters Without Borders' Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk criticised the incident, telling that "There is no justification for this massive obstruction of the Kazakh public’s right to information."

He called on the Kazakh authorities to abandon the "repressive practices from an earlier era" for their reformist discourse to viewed credible, noting that internet censorship is one of the reasons why Kazakhstan is ranked 158th in the Press Freedom Index, a position which gives the nation a "bad international image".

[120] On 15 May, for observers from the NGO's of Almaty and 12 ethnocultural centers of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, students of city universities, training was conducted on the basis of the civil platform Amanat.

The team of observers, according to the head of the mission, Urszula Gacek, included experts from Great Britain, Spain, Germany, Belarus, Poland, who would work not only before the elections, but also after.

Deputy Interior Minister Marat Kozhayev announced that 500 people had been taken into custody, while Mukhtar Ablyazov, the leader of opposition group the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, claimed that there were "thousands of protesters" in the Astana Square of Almaty.

[130] According to the Kazakh government, the protests were caused by attempts to destabilize the social situation on the part of radical elements by organizing and conducting unauthorized actions.