KZBlog

Akim of Priozersk Fired (Comments Off on Akim of Priozersk Fired)

Posted by KZBlog on 19 January 11 • Categorized as News,Politics • Tagged as Boilers, heating, Kairat Smagulova, Karaganda, Mechanical engineering, Priozersk, problems, Semey

Kairat Smagulova, mayor of Priozersk, in Karagranda oblast has been fired for failing to provide heat to the people. On 3 Jan, a hot water heater that serves 67 homes and 34 businesses failed, leading to 11 days without heat.

Meanwhile in Semipalatinsk, where the temperture has fallen to -45 in recent days, one heater (installed in 1934!), failed. Official information from the akimat seems to indicate that only three hot water heaters serve the entire city of Semei. I should explain that most cities in Kazakhstan have centralized heating and hot water, meaning that hot water for radiators is heated centrally and sent out in pipes to homes and offices. It has been a long-acknowledged problem that much of the infrastructure of Kazakhstan was built by the Soviets and never upgraded or replaced. The causes are under investigation and city leadership has promised to build a new heater by the spring!

As of yet, there is no word that the leadership of Semipalatinsk will be punished. However many Kazakhstani are joking about the fact that the initiator of the referendum to extend the President’s term is the head of Semipalatinsk State University. One wonders why he isn’t pushing for a referendum to upgrade the heating infrastructure. The crisis might explain why the announcement of the referendum happened in Uralsk however!

Referendum and ElBasi Amendments Sent to Constitutional Council (1)

Posted by KZBlog on 18 January 11 • Categorized as News,Politics • Tagged as Address to the People, Constitutional amendment, Constitutional Council, Nursultan Nazarbayev, President, Referendum, Назарбаев

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.

Elbasi Status Will Be Constitutional (Comments Off on Elbasi Status Will Be Constitutional)

Posted by KZBlog on 15 January 11 • Categorized as News,Politics • Tagged as Elbasi, Janez Lenarcic, NurOtan party, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, President, Referendum, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, Назарбаев, Президент

Slightly ignored in the fuss over the referendum, yesterday’s vote in a joint session of Parliament also approved an amendment to enshrine Nazarbayev’s status as Leader of the Nation [RUS]. Parliamentarian Rakhmet Mukashev said, interestingly enough, that the term Elbasi (Leader of the Nation) already exists in the Kazakh text of the Constitution. Earlier last year, the law on Leader of the Nation passed, which gave Nazarbayev protection from being arrested or prosecuted or have his property confiscated. Nazarbayev himself saw no need to have the Constitution amended on this point, but Parliament showed its defiance once again, and passed the call for the amendments.

In other news about the referendum, Germany has joined the US in condemning the referendum, and the head of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE has also expressed concern. Ambassador Janez Lenarcic claims in his statement that:

As a participating State of the OSCE, Kazakhstan is obliged to hold free elections at reasonable intervals and respect the right of citizens to seek political or public office without discrimination. Kazakhstan has also agreed that the basis of the authority and legitimacy of all government is the will of the people, freely and fairly expressed through periodic and genuine elections…“It is particularly distressing that this referendum initiative appeared only weeks after Kazakhstan as the then-chairmanship hosted an OSCE Summit that in strong terms reaffirmed all OSCE commitments, including those on democratic elections,” Lenarcic said.

The referendum would also be in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the legally-binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and CIS Convention on Standards of Democratic Elections.

In addition, the constitution states that international treaties ratified by Kazakhstan have priority over national legislation.

Interestingly while commentators in Kazakhstan dismissed criticism from the US, saying that the US itself was hypocritical in its own democracy or unfairly imposing its will on other countries, it will be hard for the Kazakhstan government to criticize the OSCE without tarnishing its own leadership in the OSCE.

Even Yermukhamet Yertisbayev has joined the fray criticizing the referendum, saying it is a pity that Parliament has forced this referendum on Nazarbayev. But he doesn’t blame the members, all of whom belong to the NurOtan party headed by the President himself:

We know that Nazarbayev has the support of 90% of society… The campaign that ran from the 26th of December to the 14th of January (to collect signatures in support of a referendum) clearly show and prove to the world that the president has overwhelming support…If Parliament decided against it, then it would, in principle, be made against the people. That is, the parliament was put in a position where it could not make another decision

Parliament Passes Amendment (2)

Posted by KZBlog on 14 January 11 • Categorized as News,Politics • Tagged as Nursultan Nazarbayev, Parliament, Referendum, Назарбаев, Президент

Today in a joint session, the Parliament of Kazakhstan unanimously approved a motion to amend the Constitution in order to extend the term of Nazarbayev until the year 2020, overcoming the President’s earlier veto. The head of the Central Election Committee, Kuandyk Turgankulov, who approved the referendum from the people of Kazakhstan was in Parliament today speaking to reporters and despite saying that the President cannot veto this proposal, also said that we are waiting to see what the President will do.

I have to admit that while I have been trying to follow this story, I am completely lost because it seems like Parliament and this initiative group’s petition have been working simultaneously. And because the law-making process has moved much faster than it usually does.

As far as I understand, an initiative group proposed a referendum to extend the President’s term, which requires 250,000 signatures. Then Parliament proposed the referendum and the President vetoed it. Then the group collected 5 million signatures. Then this proposal went to the President. Now Parliament has overturned the President’s veto. But there has been no reaction thus far on the people’s initiative.

Is there an expert on Kazakhstan law that can explain this to me and the other readers? It seems like they might have put the cart before the horse a few times. I’m also not clear on why this requires an amendment to the Constitution. Can’t they just hold the referendum without changing the Constitution?

Note that, as far as I understand, all that has been approved is the decision to hold a national vote on whether to extend his term or not. So it is theoretically possible that people will vote against the proposal. There have also been rumors of aggressive measures by people collecting signatures, including banging on doors late at night and teachers telling parents of pupils to sign. It would be interesting if the positive vote on the proposal itself fell far short of the 5 million signatures collected in favor of the referendum.

The Big Day (Comments Off on The Big Day)

Posted by KZBlog on 14 January 11 • Categorized as News,Politics • Tagged as Central Election Committee, Nurlan Nigmatulin, NurOtan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Parliament, President, Referendum, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, Назарбаев, Президент

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.