Candidates for the 127-seat lower house of parliament include champion boxer Gennady Golovkin, Olympic weighlifting gold medal winner Ilya Ilin, and pop stars Zhanar Dugalova and Kairat Nurtas as well as Dariga Nazarbayeva, Mr Nazarbayev’s daughter, and the ex- mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yesimov.

Kazakh political analyst, Adil Nurmakov, said that although Nur Otan had used this strategy previously, they were employing it particularly heavily for this election.

“It is an attempt by the ruling party to position itself as a popular force among celebrities truly loved by the people. I see it as a primitive electoral technique. It has been used numerous times in the past,” he said.

Last month, Mr Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March 20, a year earlier than it had been scheduled for, officially because the current parliament had fulfilled its remit.

Analysts, though, said it was called early to head off civil strife as the economic climate worsens. On the streets of Almaty, reaction to the celebratory packed party list was mixed.

“Sportsmen are also people. If the Parliament has sportsmen there will be more discipline,” said Maksat, a sales distributor.

Others were less impressed.

“A deputy should be a person with special education not just a regular boxer or a singer,” said Zinaida Trinojenko, a PR specialist. “It is a delusion.”