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

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

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

The vote will take place on June 5, only one month after the proposed reforms had 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 rework Kazakhstan from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a robust parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union address on March 16.

An excellent-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are only nominally impartial, and the president and their administration have almost unlimited control 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 additional consolidated his private 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 the least on the village degree. Nevertheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his personal management 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, a number of proposed provisions would slightly restrict the power of the president. The president shouldn't be a member of a political celebration, 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 celebration – 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 maintain political posts.

A number of proposed measures give parliament extra power vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will remain bicameral, however the distribution of power between the higher and decrease houses will shift considerably. The Senate will now not have the ability to make new laws, and instead will just approve or reject legal guidelines handed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the process for choosing deputies to each houses will change. 

First, the Mazhilis shall be reduced to 98 deputies, following the abolition of nine seats appointed by the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. These seats will be transferred to the Senate, and the Meeting of the Peoples will now only get to appoint 5 deputies. The number of deputies appointed by the president can be decreased from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies will probably be elected in keeping with a mixed system. Seventy % of Mazhilis deputies will likely be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 percent can be straight elected.

The only proposed adjustments 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 robust influence over the Constitutional Court’s makeup, nonetheless, with the ability to pick the court’s chairman and 4 of the judges; parliament chooses the opposite three.

Tokayev has emphasised the significance of native governance, marked by the first-ever direct election of village akims and plans to introduce three new oblasts that can deliver government our bodies nearer to the populations they signify. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of proposed reforms is the lack of significant motion 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 – nevertheless, the candidates can have been selected by the president. The precise to elect local management has been one of the most constant demands from Almaty residents, and this attempt to create choice is in the end beauty.

The proposed reforms are important steps towards actual representative authorities in Kazakhstan; nonetheless, they do not essentially represent forward motion. Many of the amendments are merely reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential power that previously existed, quite than materially altering the relationship between state and society, as Tokayev claims.