Early Election as an Instrument of Electoral Manipulation: Case of Early Presidential Elections in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This Thesis focuses such instrument of electoral manipulation as early elections. The focus was made on the case of the Republic of Kazakhstan where early elections have become a tradition. At first the existing literature on the role of elections in authoritarian states, electoral manipulation and election timing is presented. Next chapters provide the record of three cases of early presidential elections in Kazakhstan in order to identify possible tools that the incumbent uses and causal mechanisms by applying method of explaining-outcome process tracing. In the concluding chapter makes an attempt to analyze the phenomenon of early elections in Kazakhstan through the lenses of the theory of rational choice institutionalism.