Kazakh parliament backs referendum to extend Nazarbayev rule
By IANSFriday, January 14, 2011
Astana, Jan 14 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Kazakhstan’s parliament Friday voted unanimously in favour of a referendum to extend the rule of long-standing President Nursultan Nazarbayev until 2020, bypassing the 2012 election.
The move means that Nazarbayev’s 20-year rule will be extended by another decade and makes it impossible for Nazarbayev to veto the legislation according to Kazakh law.
Nazarbayev vetoed the parliament’s original call for the referendum. The European Union praised the president’s move, but he was easily overruled by lawmakers.
The idea of a referendum was given the green light by the Kazakh Central Election Commission in December.
“Now the president will either sign the amendments to the constitution or send these amendments to the referendum,” the commission’s chief, Kuandyk Turgankulov, told reporters.
The EU has condemned the Kazakh parliament’s move, saying this would contradict Kazakhstan’s commitment to democracy.
“The EU believes that any decision to extend the presidential term in office until 2020 would be in contradiction with Kazakhstan’s commitment to democracy and good governance,” the bloc said in a statement.
The EU urged Kazakhstan, which held the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) rotating presidency in 2010, to “continue to strive for regular, free and fair elections in line with its constitution and OSCE commitments” and noted the “special responsibility of the Kazakh parliament in this regard.”
The US also earlier released a statement condemning the referendum move saying that it would be “a setback for democracy”.
A public petition for the referendum has already received more than five million signatures. By law, at least 200,000 signatures are needed.
The parliament has already amended the country’s constitution to allow the 70-year-old leader to run for re-election indefinitely.
Nazarbayev has had a tight grip on the Central Asian state since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
