The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, initiated amendments to the country’s main law – the Constitution. The entire package of constitutional amendments will be submitted to a national referendum, the date of which has not yet been determined. It should be noted that this will be the sixth change in the Constitution in the history of Kazakhstan’s independence.
In total, it’s proposed to make more than 30 amendments. Among the most important is the transition from a super-presidential to a presidential republic, which means a decrease in the level of power of the President and an increase in the power of Parliament and government.
It’s also proposed to write in the Constitution that the President cannot be a member of any party during the execution of his powers, and his relatives cannot hold positions in the state and quasi-state sectors.
The amendments provide for the renaming of the Accounts Committee into the Supreme Audit Chamber with a corresponding expansion of functions and powers. A new article is being introduced on the Constitutional Court, which as an institution is currently absent in Kazakhstan. Instead, there is the Constitutional Council, whose functions have always, as a rule, been reduced to only one thing – to interpret the Constitution in a way that was beneficial to the country’s first President, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
By the way, about Nazarbayev. The current version of the Constitution says the following about him: “The independence of the state, unitarity and territorial integrity of the republic, the form of its government, established by the Constitution, as well as the fundamental principles of the republic’s activities, laid down by the founder of independent Kazakhstan, the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Elbasy), and his status are unchanged”.
Elbasy is a title that was given to Nazarbayev during his reign by various sycophants and flatterers. From Kazakh language, this word is translated as Leader of the nation.
Among the amendments proposed by Tokayev, there was a change to this article of the Constitution as follows: “The independence of the state, the unitarity and territorial integrity of the republic, the form of its government, the fundamental principles of the republic’s activities, as well as the status of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the founder of independent Kazakhstan, are unchanged”. That is, the de facto amendments deprived Nazarbayev of the status of Elbasy (the Leader of the nation), but emphasized his role as the founder of independent Kazakhstan.
However, most likely Nazarbayev will not have this status either; in any case, in the Constitution.
According to State Secretary Erlan Karin, the Constitutional Council gave a positive opinion on the draft amendments to the fundamental law of the country. In addition, the working group, that developed the amendments, appealed to the Constitutional Council with a request to eliminate the rule regarding the first President altogether.
“Taking into account the proposal of some members of the working group, an additional appeal was sent to the Constitutional Council concerning the exclusion of the rule regarding the status of the first President. According to the members of the working group, the historical role as the first President is well known and doesn’t require a special reference in the Constitution,” Karin said.
Leave feedback about this