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Kazakhstan to hold snap election in January
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has dissolved parliament and called a snap election for mid-January.
The move, which was widely expected after he won April's presidential poll, will dilute the governing party's monopoly.
Mr Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party, which has 98 of the 107 parliamentary seats, is widely expected to win most seats.
But the elections could pave the way for a second-placed party to have a presence in parliament.
The country's one-party lower house of parliament, the Mazhilis, asked the president last week to dissolve the chamber ahead of the vote.
The snap election will be held on 15 January 2012 while recurrent elections in the country were scheduled for August 2012.
