KZBlog

There’s actually an excellent article on Central Asian News Wire that sums up the whole history of the referendum movement, including the latest move. Rather than sign the bill from Parliament to approve amendments to the Constitution, Nazarbayev has sent them to the Constitutional Council. The role of the Council is to judge whether proposed laws are in line with the Constitution or not. A number of laws including a controversial media law have been sent to the Council and rejected by them.

It’s not 100% clear whether amendments to the Constitution can be judged unconstitutional. In the US, for example, two amendments directly rewrite the Constitution and one amendment was introduced to repeal an earlier amendment (Prohibition).

Again, the amendments of the status of Leader of the Nation appear to be part of the package, although the media is not talking about this as much. So it isn’t clear whether the law, adopted last year, which gives Nazarbayev a number of additional powers in and out of office, would have to be repealed if the Council decides that as amendments they are unconstitutional.

The Council has one month to make a decision. There are rumors that they will decide that they cannot make a judgement on these matters, sending the ball back to the President’s court. As we learned last year, any law not signed nor vetoed by the President for one month becomes law so perhaps the amendments will pass in this passive way.

In a possibly related note, the Address to the People of Kazakhstan, an annual State of the Union-like address that also sets out the nation’s agenda for the year, was to be held today, but has been delayed until Friday.