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

On June 5, Kazakhs will vote on a package of reforms supposed to remodel 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 assist 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 happen on June 5, only one month after the proposed reforms were launched. The reform bundle addresses 33 separate articles – about one third of the whole constitutional articles – and was developed by a working group that Tokayev established in March. The reforms are stated to rework Kazakhstan from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a powerful parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union handle on March 16.

A super-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are only nominally unbiased, and the president and their administration have practically limitless control over political decision-making. Kazakhstan’s first step to a super-presidential system was the adoption of a brand new structure 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 started to loosen the president’s management with constitutional amendments in 2017 that slightly redistributed presidential powers to different branches of presidency and opened the path for the election of local representatives, not less than on the village level. Nonetheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his private 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 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 barely limit the facility of the president. The president should not be a member of a political social gathering, 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 celebration – a rebranded model of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan get together – on April 26. Additionally, the president can not override the acts of akims of oblasts, major cities, or the capital and close members of the family of the president cannot maintain political posts.

Several 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 lower homes will shift somewhat. The Senate will now not have the ability to make new laws, and as an alternative will just approve or reject laws passed by the Mazhilis. Moreover, the process for selecting deputies to both houses will change. 

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

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

The only proposed adjustments to the judicial system relate to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Courtroom. Kazakhstan had a Constitutional Court till the adoption of the 1995 structure, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president nonetheless maintains a strong influence over the Constitutional Court’s make-up, however, with the ability to pick the courtroom’s chairman and four 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 may bring authorities our bodies nearer to the populations they represent. Maybe essentially the most disappointing side 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, main cities, and the capital – nonetheless, the candidates may have been selected by the president. The precise to elect local leadership has been one of the crucial constant calls for from Almaty residents, and this try to create alternative is ultimately cosmetic.

The proposed reforms are essential steps toward real representative government in Kazakhstan; however, they don't essentially constitute forward motion. Most of the amendments are simply reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential power that previously existed, moderately than materially altering the connection between state and society, as Tokayev claims.