KZBlog

Today there will be a joint session of both houses of Parliament and the referendum to extend Nazarbayev’s term until 2020 is on the agenda.

The Central Election Committee in a record 3 days checked all 5 million signatures and found only 194,000 were invalid. They have sent the petition on to the President. The President has already vetoed a proposal by Parliament to hold a national referendum. However it is unclear whether he can or will veto this proposal that has come from the initiative group. In any case, many expect the Parliament to vote to overturn that veto today. It’s all a bit confusing and from listening to the rhetoric of many politicians and advisors, it seems that both the Parliament’s proposal and the signed petition are being used as weight to get the President to agree to a referendum. But the exact legal status and procedures seem a bit confusing since both the Parliament and the initiative group went ahead at the same time. The extension to 2020 instead of 2017, as described in the Constitution, is also a bit confusing.

In any case, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, advisor to the President, assures us that Nazarybayev wants elections. However, according to Yertysbayev, there is a lot of pressure on the President to approve the referendum.

As if to underscore that point, a coalition named “Kazakhstan 2020” has been formed of groups that support the extension of the President’s term. At the moment it seems to include only NurOtan, Adilet, and the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (a group that reports to the President) and is headed by Nurlan Nigmatulin, who is also first deputy chairman of NurOtan.