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 robust parliament.”

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

The vote will take place on June 5, only one month after the proposed reforms have been launched. The reform bundle addresses 33 separate articles – about one third of the total 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 deal with on March 16.

A super-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are solely nominally unbiased, and the president and their administration have almost limitless control 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 further consolidated his personal 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, at least at the village stage. Nevertheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his personal management over Kazakhstan’s politics by together with provisions that protected him as “elbasy,” or chief 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 household’s fall from grace. 

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In addition to sidelining Nazarbayev, several proposed provisions would barely prohibit the power of the president. The president shouldn't be a member of a political get together, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva referred to as “the bravest step of our esteemed president.” In anticipation of this modification, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat occasion – a rebranded model of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan party – on April 26. Additionally, the president can not override the acts of akims of oblasts, major cities, or the capital and close relations of the president cannot hold political posts.

A number of proposed measures give parliament extra power 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 legal guidelines, and as a substitute will simply approve or reject legal guidelines handed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the method for selecting deputies to both homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis will be decreased 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 Assembly of the Peoples will now solely get to appoint five deputies. The variety of deputies appointed by the president will be diminished from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies might be elected in accordance with a combined system. Seventy percent of Mazhilis deputies shall be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 percent can be directly elected.

The only 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 powerful influence over the Constitutional Court’s makeup, nevertheless, with the ability to select the court docket’s chairman and 4 of the judges; parliament chooses the opposite three.

Tokayev has emphasized the importance of local governance, marked by the first-ever direct election of village akims and plans to introduce three new oblasts that will bring government our bodies closer to the populations they signify. Perhaps essentially the most disappointing aspect of proposed reforms is the lack of great 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 – nonetheless, the candidates could have been selected by the president. The appropriate to elect local leadership has been one of the vital constant calls for from Almaty residents, and this try to create choice is ultimately beauty.

The proposed reforms are essential steps toward actual consultant authorities in Kazakhstan; however, they don't necessarily represent ahead motion. Most of the amendments are simply reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential energy that previously existed, relatively than materially changing the connection between state and society, as Tokayev claims.