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

On June 5, Kazakhs will vote on a bundle of reforms supposed to transform 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 help from the Russian-backed Collective Security 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 were launched. The reform package deal 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 stated to remodel 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 where parliaments and courts are only 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 brand 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 control with constitutional amendments in 2017 that barely redistributed presidential powers to different branches of presidency and opened the trail for the election of native representatives, at the very least on the village level. Nevertheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his private control 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 constitution 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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Along with sidelining Nazarbayev, several proposed provisions would barely limit the facility of the president. The president should not be a member of a political celebration, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva known as “the bravest step of our esteemed president.” In anticipation of this amendment, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat get together – a rebranded version of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan celebration – on April 26. Moreover, the president can not override the acts of akims of oblasts, main cities, or the capital and shut relations of the president can't hold political posts.

Several proposed measures give parliament extra energy vis-a-vis the president. Kazakhstan’s parliament will stay bicameral, however the distribution of power between the upper and decrease homes will shift considerably. The Senate will no longer have the power to make new laws, and as an alternative will simply approve or reject laws passed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the method for choosing deputies to both homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis will likely be reduced to 98 deputies, following the abolition of nine seats appointed by the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. Those seats might 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 will likely be lowered from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies shall be elected based on a mixed system. Seventy p.c of Mazhilis deputies shall be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 % shall be straight elected.

The one proposed changes 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 still maintains a robust influence over the Constitutional Court’s makeup, nevertheless, with the ability to select the court docket’s chairman and four 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 may carry authorities our bodies nearer to the populations they symbolize. Perhaps the most disappointing facet of proposed reforms is the dearth of great motion on native 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 – however, the candidates can have been chosen by the president. The correct to elect local leadership has been probably the most constant calls for from Almaty residents, and this try and create choice is in the end beauty.

The proposed reforms are necessary steps toward actual representative authorities in Kazakhstan; nevertheless, they don't necessarily represent forward movement. Lots of the amendments are merely reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential energy that previously existed, rather than materially altering the relationship between state and society, as Tokayev claims.