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ALMATY:
Kazakhs voted Sunday in a constitutional referconcludeum that authorities state will strengthen democracy — though several proposed amconcludements appear rather to boost presidential powers in Central Asia’s richest countest.
The vote on altering around 80 percent of the countest’s basic law has been pushed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who is seeking to balance the resource-rich former Soviet republic’s ties between the European Union, Russia and China.
Three exit polls published by state media indicated that between about 87 and 89 percent of voters had approved the amconcludements. Officials stated turnout was more than 73 percent.
After 2022 protests over the cost of living escalated into riots and left 238 people dead, the president pledged to liberalise the political system to build a “just Kazakhstan”.
Announcing the amconcludements in February, he stated: “Kazakhstan is once and for all relocating away from a super-presidential form of rule and transitioning to a presidential republic with a strong parliament.”
Tokayev, a Soviet-educated former diplomat who speaks fluent Chinese, stated his proposals would essentially create a “new system of state governance” that would “allow for the redistribution of power” and “strengthen the checks and balances system”.
However, several proposals indicate the opposite: the president would be able to appoint top officials such as the heads of the central bank, the ininformigence services and the constitutional court.
The positions currently require approval from the Senate, the parliament’s upper chamber, which would be abolished under the amconcludements.
Instead, a new single-chamber assembly, the Kurultai, would be created. But the head of state would be able to dissolve it and rule by executive orders if the parliament refutilizes to approve presidential nominees to key posts twice.
The amconcludements provide for a further tightening of freedom of speech, stating that it must not “undermine the morality of society or violate public order”, according to the draft text.
Critics detained
Demonstrations — already rare in Kazakhstan — could also face further limitations.
The sweeping constitutional overhaul was proposed just a month ago and then rushed through a two-week campaign that saw little criticism.
International observers state elections in Kazakhstan are often predictable and tconclude to ratify decisions taken by the leadership, as across much of post-Soviet Central Asia.
Tokayev brands himself as a reformer seeking to break with the countest’s authoritarian past, but rights groups state democratic institutions remain tightly controlled.
To boost turnout and support for the referconcludeum, authorities have involved famous athletes and mobilised workers in mining and oil industries — two important sectors in the Kazakh economy.
Several critics of the reforms have been summoned by police or briefly detained, while journalists who published indepconcludeent opinion polls have been fined.
One voter in the capital, 60-year-old logistics professional Ashirbek Berdibekov, notified AFP he supported the amconcludements, stateing: “A Kazakh citizen must support Kazakh policies.”
But another citizen, retiree Nazarbay Bliyev, 90, stated he was “worried” by the speed with which the amconcludements had been launched.
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