KZBlog

Kazakhstan Today is reporting that Nazarbayev has rejected the referendum on extending his presidential term to 2020.

He issued a decree today: “On the rejection of the proposals of the Parliament of Kazakhstan for an all-nation referendum amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” in which he official rejected the Parliament’s proposal for the referendum to allow him to stay as President until the year 2020, adding another 7 year term to his Presidency (although Constitutional amendments in 2007 had reduced the next Presidential term to 5 years).

However Nazarbayev as First President will still be able to run in the next elections, which are scheduled for 2012, and few doubt that any other candidate will be successful against him.

Now on to the speculation as to whether the Parliament can veto the President’s rejection in some way and whether or not the proposal was made in the first place to allow the President to reject it, thus showing his democratic credentials. Personally I suspect that the President realized that such an edict would tarnish the reputation of the country abroad, particularly in the West, and also set a bad precedent for the next President.