KZBlog

I finally found a list of the most important of the constitutional amendments in English and in some detail. It’s actually in the latest news bulletin of the Kazakhstan Embassy to the US, reporting on the new Government Secretary’s speech on the amendments but it has some details of what these reforms mean.

Among some key points that I either misunderstood or wasn’t clear on:

Further, a Prime Minister will now be appointed only with the approval of the majority of the Majilis. Deputies will now need only a simple majority for a vote of no confidence to pass, as opposed to the qualified majority of two thirds of the deputies previously required. Moreover, two thirds of the Constitutional Council, the Central Election Commission and the Accounting Committee will be filled by the Parliament. All these changes will significantly strengthen the role of the legislature.

So Parliament will still formally approve the President’s choice of PM (I got that wrong on some comments on Registan.net and New Eurasia) but now they need a 51% vote to reject the candidate, instead of 67% as before. However, according to Igor Rogov’s recent appearance on the news, the President can veto the Parliament’s rejection.

As far as I understand the Constitutional Council, the Central Election Commission and the Accounting Committee will have two-thirds of its members elected by Parliament–not that these commissions will be filled with MEMBERS of Parliament (you see how hard it is to find accurate language on this?)

Local representative bodies will have a qualitatively new role and will influence the appointment of all levels of executive power locally. Akims (governors) of regions, cities and regions will not be appointed without the approval of the maslikhats.

So Mashlikhats which were previously solely advisory bodies, will now have to approve akims. Mashlikhats are popularly elected.

I’d been having a hard time finding an English language summary of the new amendments that included detailed descriptions so I suggest you read through Saudabayev’s speech.

EDIT: The Embassy sent out the 21 May bulletin but apparently hasn’t put it up on the website yet. So you’ll have to wait a bit.

EDIT THE 2ND: Chris Merriman, besides giving me link love has also linked to the BBC article which is obviously in English and full of yummy details, so that would be another resource to go to.