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

On June 5, Kazakhs will vote on a package deal of reforms intended to transform the nation from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a powerful parliament.”

Six months after Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev known as protesters terrorists and requested help from the Russian-backed Collective Security Treaty Organization to quell mass unrest, citizens will participate in a referendum on constitutional reforms. 

The vote will happen on June 5, only one month after the proposed reforms had been launched. The reform package addresses 33 separate articles – about one third of the whole constitutional articles – and was developed by a working group that Tokayev established in March. The reforms are mentioned 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.

A brilliant-presidential system is one where parliaments and courts are solely nominally independent, and the president and their administration have practically unlimited management over political decision-making. Kazakhstan’s first step to a super-presidential system was the adoption of a new structure in 1995 that was pushed by Nursultan Nazarbayev after dissolving an uncooperative parliament. Nazarbayev further consolidated his private powers with constitutional amendments in 1998, 2007, and 2011.

Nazarbayev began to loosen the president’s control with constitutional amendments in 2017 that slightly redistributed presidential powers to other branches of presidency and opened the trail for the election of native representatives, at least at the village level. Nonetheless, 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 household’s fall from grace. 

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Along with sidelining Nazarbayev, a number of proposed provisions would barely prohibit the ability of the president. The president should not be a member of a political occasion, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva known as “the bravest step of our esteemed president.” In anticipation of this amendment, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat celebration – a rebranded version of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan social gathering – on April 26. Additionally, the president can now not override the acts of akims of oblasts, main cities, or the capital and close members of the family of the president can't hold political posts.

A number of proposed measures give parliament extra power vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will remain bicameral, however the distribution of power between the upper and lower houses will shift somewhat. The Senate will not have the power to make new laws, and instead will simply approve or reject laws passed by the Mazhilis. Moreover, the method for choosing deputies to both homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis might be reduced to 98 deputies, following the abolition of nine seats appointed by the Meeting of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. Those seats will probably be transferred to the Senate, and the Assembly of the Peoples will now only get to appoint 5 deputies. The variety of deputies appointed by the president will likely be diminished from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies will be elected in keeping with a mixed system. Seventy % of Mazhilis deputies might be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 percent will likely be immediately elected.

The one proposed adjustments to the judicial system relate to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Court docket. Kazakhstan had a Constitutional Courtroom until the adoption of the 1995 constitution, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president nonetheless maintains a robust influence over the Constitutional Courtroom’s make-up, nevertheless, with the ability to select the courtroom’s chairman and four of the judges; parliament chooses the opposite three.

Tokayev has emphasised the significance of native governance, marked by the first-ever direct election of village akims and plans to introduce three new oblasts that may convey authorities our bodies nearer to the populations they represent. Perhaps essentially the most disappointing facet of proposed reforms is the shortage of serious movement on local illustration for residents of Kazakhstan’s largest cities. If the referendum passes, Kazakhstanis will get to vote for akims of oblasts, major cities, and the capital – nevertheless, the candidates will have been chosen by the president. The right to elect local management has been probably the most constant calls for from Almaty residents, and this attempt to create selection is finally beauty.

The proposed reforms are important steps towards real representative government in Kazakhstan; nevertheless, they don't necessarily represent forward movement. Many of the amendments are merely reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential power that beforehand existed, somewhat than materially changing the relationship between state and society, as Tokayev claims.