NUR-SULTAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd September, 2022) SULTAN, September 2 (Sputnik) - The first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, will not be able to take part in the presidential election this fall due to the removal of a provision from the constitution that gives him the right to be elected more than twice in a row, Vice Minister of Justice Alma Mukanova said on Friday.
On Thursday, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed holding early presidential election this fall, despite the fact that his first five-year term expires only in 2024. At the same time, he announced that after the election he would introduce an initiative to increase the presidential term from five to seven years, but without the right to re-election. The leader also proposed to hold snap elections to the lower house of Kazakhstan's parliament in first half of 2023.
"According to the amendments adopted at the republican referendum, the provision was excluded from the constitution, which said that the requirement to be elected president more than twice in a row does not apply to the first president," Mukanova told reporters.
Nazarbayev, who headed Kazakhstan for almost 30 years, resigned as president on March 20, 2019. After the resignation, Nazarbayev continued to serve as the chairman of the republic's powerful Security Council until he was removed by Tokayev on January 5, 2022, amid a wave of anti-government protests in the country. Many of Nazarbayev's family members also resigned as government officials and heads of government-controlled enterprises, some of them were repeatedly accused of larceny and state treason.
On June 5, Kazakhs supported a package of amendments to the 1995 constitution, reforming the political system and stripping Nazarbayev of his "leader of the nation" honorary status.
