KZBlog

The inauguration was apparently the place to be today; even the candidates who ran against Nazarbayev attended.

In his speech, the President thanked the people for reelecting him and listed the world leaders who had congratulated him on his victory (conspicuously absent from the list were Obama, Ban-Ki Moon and Cameron). He also claimed that these elections had been the best organized and most democratic in the history of not only Kazakhstan, but Central Asia. In particular he noted that the campaigns had lacked any kind of mudslinging or “black PR”. Given that insulting or dishonoring the Leader of the Nation is a crime in Kazakhstan, it’s not surprising that none of the other candidates heavily criticized Nazarbayev, however. He also claimed that political reforms were progressing in Kazakhstan faster than in more established democracies and promised to initiate reforms to give more power to Parliament and local governments.

Most of the speech was given to noting the progress that Kazakhstan has made in its 20 years of independence, including noting that Kazakhstan is already in the fifty most competitive countries in a number of areas including size of national reserves.

The inauguration was followed by a meeting where the Government tended its resignations. And shortly thereafter Karim Masimov was reappointed as Prime Minister by Parliament, making him the longest-serving Prime Minister in Kazakhstan’s history. Kazakhstan has had 7 Prime Ministers (I believe) in 20 years of independence, with an average term of just under 3 years and Masimov is well into his fourth year.

So far none of the other cabinet posts have been filled. However a few days before the inauguration, the national oil company, KazMunaiGas appointed Askar Balzhanov as General Director, moving Kenzhebekov Ibrashev off to some other part of the company. Balzhanov comes from inside KazMunaiGas, so I’m not sure this news bodes too much.

Now we enter the land of rumor and speculation–who will stay on, who will move up, who will move down and of course, who is being positioned to enter Parliament in 2012 when the next elections will be held.