What’s in Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Referendum? – The Diplomat

On June 5, Kazakhs will vote on a package of reforms meant to rework the country from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a strong parliament.”

Six months after Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called protesters terrorists and requested support from the Russian-backed Collective Security Treaty Group to quell mass unrest, citizens will take part in a referendum on constitutional reforms. 

The vote will happen on June 5, only one month after the proposed reforms have been released. The reform package deal addresses 33 separate articles – about one third of the entire constitutional articles – and was developed by a working group that Tokayev established in March. The reforms are said to rework Kazakhstan from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a strong parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union address on March 16.

An excellent-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are only nominally impartial, and the president and their administration have nearly limitless management over political decision-making. Kazakhstan’s first step to a super-presidential system was the adoption of a brand new constitution in 1995 that was pushed by Nursultan Nazarbayev after dissolving an uncooperative parliament. Nazarbayev additional consolidated his private powers with constitutional amendments in 1998, 2007, and 2011.

Nazarbayev started to loosen the president’s management with constitutional amendments in 2017 that slightly redistributed presidential powers to other branches of presidency and opened the path for the election of native representatives, at least at the village degree. However, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his private control over Kazakhstan’s politics by including provisions that protected him as “elbasy,” or chief of the nation.

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The proposed constitutional reforms strip the constitution of mentions of elbasy and the First President of the Republic, which some see as a continued sign of the Nazarbayev family’s fall from grace. 

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In addition to sidelining Nazarbayev, a number of proposed provisions would barely restrict the ability of the president. The president shouldn't be a member of a political social gathering, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva called “the bravest step of our esteemed president.” In anticipation of this amendment, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat celebration – a rebranded model of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan social gathering – on April 26. Moreover, the president can no longer override the acts of akims of oblasts, main cities, or the capital and close family members of the president can't hold political posts.

A number of proposed measures give parliament more energy vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will stay bicameral, however the distribution of power between the upper and decrease homes will shift somewhat. The Senate will not have the power to make new laws, and as an alternative will just approve or reject laws passed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the process for choosing deputies to each homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis can be diminished to 98 deputies, following the abolition of 9 seats appointed by the Meeting of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. Those seats might be transferred to the Senate, and the Meeting of the Peoples will now solely get to nominate five deputies. The number of deputies appointed by the president can be diminished from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies shall be elected in accordance with a blended system. Seventy p.c of Mazhilis deputies can be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 % shall be immediately elected.

The one proposed modifications to the judicial system relate to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Courtroom. Kazakhstan had a Constitutional Courtroom till the adoption of the 1995 structure, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president still maintains a strong influence over the Constitutional Courtroom’s makeup, nevertheless, with the ability to pick out the court docket’s chairman and four of the judges; parliament chooses the other three.

Tokayev has emphasized the significance of local governance, marked by the first-ever direct election of village akims and plans to introduce three new oblasts that will convey authorities bodies closer to the populations they signify. Perhaps the most disappointing facet of proposed reforms is the shortage of great movement on local representation for residents of Kazakhstan’s largest cities. If the referendum passes, Kazakhstanis will get to vote for akims of oblasts, main cities, and the capital – however, the candidates will have been chosen by the president. The precise to elect native leadership has been one of the crucial constant demands from Almaty residents, and this try to create alternative is ultimately beauty.

The proposed reforms are important steps towards actual representative authorities in Kazakhstan; nonetheless, they don't necessarily constitute ahead motion. Lots of the amendments are simply reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential energy that previously existed, reasonably than materially altering the connection between state and society, as Tokayev claims.