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 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 help from the Russian-backed Collective Safety Treaty Group to quell mass unrest, residents 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 released. The reform package addresses 33 separate articles – about one third of the full 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 strong parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union deal with on March 16.

A brilliant-presidential system is one where parliaments and courts are only nominally independent, 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 structure 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 started to loosen the president’s management with constitutional amendments in 2017 that barely redistributed presidential powers to different branches of presidency and opened the trail for the election of local representatives, at least on the village stage. Nonetheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his personal management 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 signal of the Nazarbayev household’s fall from grace. 

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Along with sidelining Nazarbayev, several proposed provisions would slightly limit the facility of the president. The president shouldn't 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 modification, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat party – a rebranded version of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan social gathering – on April 26. Additionally, the president can not override the acts of akims of oblasts, major cities, or the capital and shut members of the family of the president cannot hold political posts.

Several proposed measures give parliament more power vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will remain bicameral, but the distribution of power between the upper and lower homes will shift somewhat. The Senate will no longer have the facility to make new legal guidelines, and instead will just approve or reject laws handed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the method for selecting deputies to each homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis can be lowered to 98 deputies, following the abolition of 9 seats appointed by the Meeting of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. These seats will probably be transferred to the Senate, and the Meeting of the Peoples will now only get to appoint five deputies. The number of deputies appointed by the president might be decreased from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies shall be elected in keeping with a combined system. Seventy p.c of Mazhilis deputies might be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 p.c might be instantly elected.

The one proposed modifications to the judicial system relate to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Courtroom. Kazakhstan had a Constitutional Courtroom until the adoption of the 1995 constitution, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president nonetheless maintains a strong influence over the Constitutional Courtroom’s make-up, however, with the power to pick out the court’s chairman and 4 of the judges; parliament chooses the other three.

Tokayev has emphasized the importance of native governance, marked by the first-ever direct election of village akims and plans to introduce three new oblasts that may bring authorities our bodies closer to the populations they characterize. Maybe the most disappointing side of proposed reforms is the lack of significant movement on native illustration 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 – nonetheless, the candidates can have been chosen by the president. The suitable to elect local management has been one of the vital consistent calls for from Almaty residents, and this try and create selection is ultimately beauty.

The proposed reforms are essential steps towards actual consultant authorities in Kazakhstan; nevertheless, they do not necessarily represent ahead movement. Many 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.