KZBlog

Daniyel Akhmetov stepped down as Prime Minister on Monday, after returning to work from a two-week vacation. His request to the President cited personal reasons, and most people believe he just got tired of the position and the accompanying stress. He was one of Kazakhstan’s longest serving Prime Ministers, staying in office for a good 3 years and it seemed like every December, rumours were spread that he would step down. In fact, there was a scare a few months ago in the PM’s office when it appeared that his staff was packing up. But that turned out to be either premature or entirely false.

Now what happens? Usually when the PM resigns, or after the Presidential elections, the government steps down (all the Ministers and top advisors). Then after a few days, the President with the approval of Parliament confirms a new PM and Ministers. Some people shuffle around, some people may stay in their current post and depending on the new PM and his team, some people may jump around quite a bit. Candidates for the PM are nominated by the President and approved by the Parliament. Usually the Parliament approves the first-choice, but as I remember from the Constitution if they reject three candidates, the President can dismiss the Parliament.

As for who is next, there appear to be two candidates: Massimov, the Vice-Prime Minister, who was given a significant role compared to other Deputy PMs and who worked quite closely with the President in the past or the Head of the Administration of the President, Dzhaksybekov, who is considered to be one of the most powerful men in Kazakhstan and a potential candidate for President in 2012. They say Akhmetov will go to work for Samruk, one of the new Holding companies in Kazakhstan and widely held to be a “good place to work” in terms of prestige and salary.

Sean Roberts is reporting that the President has already nominated Karim Massimov* and draws attention to the fact that while Akhmetov was on the team of Maskevich (and Kim and other powerful buisnessmen), Massimov apparently sides with Kulibayev, the President’s son-in-law. Further he is believed to be an ethnic Uighyur which would mean he would be the first non-Kazakh, non-Russian PM in a while.

What is perhaps most interesting is that the President met yesterday with members of NurOtan to get advice on who to nominate–Khabar TV news coverage showed him sitting with leaders of the party, as he said something like “I want to get your ideas on who should be in the new government,” then coverage stopped. So the results were to be kept quiet, but the position of NurOtan has been confirmed as powerbrokers in the government.

Chris Merriman is on the ball with international news on the event

Let me conclude by saying that those people I know who worked with Daniyel Kenzhetaiovich said that he was intelligent, interested in new ideas, and never put politics before running the nation. Rare in someone who has risen so high.

* However , Sean Roberts links to a lenta.ru article which cites gazeta.kz as saying Massimov has been nominated. The gazeta.kz article simply says that Massimov and Dzhaksybekov are both prime candidates for the post of new PM. EDIT: Now, Zona.kz is reporting that Kazakhstan Today is reporting that Masimov has been put forth as a candidate for the PM.