KZBlog

Tag archive for ‘Referendum’

• Elections on 3 April

  The President has issued a decree setting elections for 3 April 2010, 2 months from now. Elections would have been held in December of 2012, but in a speech on 31 Jan rejecting the referendum, Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed early elections in what is being called a “compromise” between those who feel the referendum to extned […]

  2/04/11 • (1)

• Transcript of President’s Speech on the Referendum

  Sorry for yesterday’s brief post. I got an important phone call in the middle of the President’s speech on TV about the referendum so I just posted the main piece of news: that he would not appeal the Constitutional Council’s decision. The other big news, which has already hit the domestic and international news services, […]

  2/01/11 • (1)

• President Says No

  The President went on live TV shortly after 5pm today to say that he would not appeal the decision of the Constitutional Council. He spoke from Akorda in front of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Ministers and other government officials.

  1/31/11 • (Comments Off on President Says No)

• President to Announce Decision

  The Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan has made a decision regarding the proposed law by Parliament to hold a referendum extending the term of the President until 2020. They have declared the law unconstitutional. The proposed amendments would have also codified the President’s status as Elbasi or “Leader of the Nation” in the Constitution itself. As […]

  1/31/11 • (Comments Off on President to Announce Decision)

• President Waiting for Constitutional Council

  Gazeta.kz has a better summary of the President’s words on the referendum than my liveblogging on the Address. Could be because their Russian is better than mine. In short (via Google Translate) he said: I vetoed the law and sent it to the Constitutional Council, as it was given to me, and they must determine […]

  1/28/11 • (1)

• All Signatures Will Be Destroyed

  An interesting twist on the referendum story. The Central Election Committee issued an order that all signatures will be destroyed, which is to say, All the [petition] papers with the signatures have the status of confidential information and should be kept at the [Central Election Commission] for three months and then should be destroyed in […]

  1/23/11 • (Comments Off on All Signatures Will Be Destroyed)

• Referendum and ElBasi Amendments Sent to Constitutional Council

  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 […]

  1/18/11 • (1)

• Elbasi Status Will Be Constitutional

  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 […]

  1/15/11 • (Comments Off on Elbasi Status Will Be Constitutional)

• Parliament Passes Amendment

  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 […]

  1/14/11 • (2)

• The Big Day

  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 […]

  1/14/11 • (Comments Off on The Big Day)

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