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

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

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

The vote will take place on June 5, just one month after the proposed reforms have been released. The reform bundle addresses 33 separate articles – about one third of the overall 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 robust parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union tackle on March 16.

A brilliant-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are solely nominally independent, and the president and their administration have practically limitless management over political decision-making. Kazakhstan’s first step to a super-presidential system was the adoption of a 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 began to loosen the president’s management with constitutional amendments in 2017 that barely redistributed presidential powers to different branches of presidency and opened the path for the election of native representatives, not less than at the village stage. Nevertheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his personal control over Kazakhstan’s politics by together with provisions that protected him as “elbasy,” or leader 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 signal of the Nazarbayev family’s fall from grace. 

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In addition to sidelining Nazarbayev, several proposed provisions would barely limit the power of the president. The president should not be a member of a political party, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva referred to as “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 occasion – on April 26. Additionally, the president can no longer override the acts of akims of oblasts, major cities, or the capital and shut family members of the president can not maintain political posts.

Several proposed measures give parliament more energy vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will stay bicameral, but the distribution of power between the upper and decrease houses will shift considerably. The Senate will no longer have the ability to make new laws, and as a substitute will just approve or reject laws passed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the process for selecting deputies to both homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis will likely be reduced to 98 deputies, following the abolition of 9 seats appointed by the Meeting of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. These seats can be transferred to the Senate, and the Meeting of the Peoples will now only get to nominate five deputies. The variety of deputies appointed by the president shall be reduced from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies shall be elected according to a mixed system. Seventy p.c of Mazhilis deputies will be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 percent might be straight elected.

The one proposed modifications to the judicial system relate to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Courtroom. Kazakhstan had a Constitutional Court till the adoption of the 1995 constitution, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president nonetheless maintains a robust affect over the Constitutional Court docket’s make-up, however, with the power to pick out the court docket’s chairman and 4 of the judges; parliament chooses the opposite 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 can deliver government our bodies closer to the populations they signify. Perhaps probably the most disappointing side of proposed reforms is the lack of significant movement on native representation 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 can have been chosen by the president. The suitable to elect native management has been probably the most consistent demands from Almaty residents, and this attempt to create alternative is finally beauty.

The proposed reforms are necessary steps toward actual representative government in Kazakhstan; nevertheless, they don't essentially constitute forward motion. Many of the amendments are merely reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential power that previously existed, moderately than materially changing the relationship between state and society, as Tokayev claims.