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

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

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

The vote will happen on June 5, just one month after the proposed reforms had been released. The reform bundle 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 mentioned to transform Kazakhstan from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a robust parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union deal with on March 16.

A super-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are only nominally impartial, and the president and their administration have almost 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 further 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 local representatives, a minimum of 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 structure 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, several proposed provisions would slightly restrict the power of the president. The president should not be a member of a political party, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva called “the bravest step of our esteemed president.” In anticipation of this modification, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat celebration – a rebranded model of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan get together – 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't maintain political posts.

Several proposed measures give parliament more energy vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will remain bicameral, but the distribution of power between the upper and decrease homes will shift somewhat. The Senate will not have the power to make new legal guidelines, and instead will simply approve or reject laws handed by the Mazhilis. Moreover, the method for choosing deputies to both homes will change. 

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

Second, Mazhilis deputies will likely be elected according to a combined system. Seventy p.c of Mazhilis deputies shall be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 % will probably be straight elected.

The only proposed changes to the judicial system relate to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Courtroom. Kazakhstan had a Constitutional Court docket till the adoption of the 1995 constitution, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president nonetheless maintains a strong influence over the Constitutional Court’s make-up, nevertheless, with the power to pick out the court’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 will convey government bodies nearer to the populations they represent. Perhaps essentially the most disappointing aspect of proposed reforms is the dearth of great movement on native 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 – nevertheless, the candidates may have been selected by the president. The right to elect local leadership has been one of the most consistent demands from Almaty residents, and this try and create alternative is in the end beauty.

The proposed reforms are important steps toward actual consultant authorities in Kazakhstan; however, they do not essentially represent ahead motion. Many of the amendments are merely reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential energy that beforehand existed, quite than materially altering the relationship between state and society, as Tokayev claims.