KZBlog

As has been widely reported, a movement to keep Nazarbayev as President until 2020 is underway. The “Initiative Group For Conducting a National Referendum to Extend the Powers of the First President of Kazakhstan” met on December 23 Ust-Kamenogorsk and called for a referendum that would extend Nazarbayev’s term until 2020, in other words giving him another 7 year term. Currently, the next Presidential election should be held in 2012, although as RFE/RL points out, the previous two (and only) elections were both held early.

The initiative is supported by the Akim of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yesimov, and well known poet and linguist, Olzhas Suleymenov. The rationale appears to be that there is no other contender for the post and that everyone knows Nazarbayev will win anyway.

For the referendum, which has no precedent as far as I know, the group would need to be registered with the Central Election Committee and they would have to collect 200,000 signatures in support of their idea. Whether the people themselves would vote on this, or the Mashlikhats or who exactly, is unclear.

This initiative comes after this year’s amendments to the Constituion which among other things allow Nazarbayev to run for President without any term limits.

Interestingly at the moment, the people only vote directly for the Mashlikhats, which are local advisory bodies, and for the President. Local executive heads are appointed by the President. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister. Senators are voted for by the lower house of Parliament and appointed by the President. The people do vote for parties now in the lower house of Parliament but not directly for the MPs themselves. So objectively it will reduce the people’s voice in the running of their government, for better or for worse.

Others have pointed out that in 2020, Nazarbayev will be 80 years old and have been in power since 1989, almost half of his life.

Commentators have also noted that this initiative came to the public after the OSCE summit, possibly to avoid embarrassing questions from foreign leaders and journalists. And it would be hard not to connect it to

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