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

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

Six months after Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev known as protesters terrorists and requested assist from the Russian-backed Collective Safety Treaty Group to quell mass unrest, citizens 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 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 mentioned to rework Kazakhstan from a super-presidential system to a “presidential system with a powerful parliament,” per Tokayev’s state of the union deal with on March 16.

A super-presidential system is one the place parliaments and courts are solely nominally unbiased, and the president and their administration have nearly limitless 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 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 barely redistributed presidential powers to other branches of presidency and opened the trail for the election of native representatives, at the very least at the village stage. Nevertheless, Nazarbayev slyly maintained his personal management over Kazakhstan’s politics by including 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 household’s fall from grace. 

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In addition to sidelining Nazarbayev, a number of proposed provisions would slightly limit the ability of the president. The president shouldn't be a member of a political party, which member of the working group Sara Idrysheva called “the bravest step of our esteemed president.” In anticipation of this amendment, Tokayev stepped down as chairman of the Amanat party – a rebranded version of Nazarbayev’s ruling Nur Otan occasion – on April 26. Moreover, the president can no longer override the acts of akims of oblasts, main cities, or the capital and close family members of the president can't 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 homes will shift considerably. The Senate will now not have the power to make new laws, and as an alternative will just approve or reject legal guidelines handed by the Mazhilis. Furthermore, the process for selecting deputies to each homes will change. 

First, the Mazhilis can be reduced to 98 deputies, following the abolition of 9 seats appointed by the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. Those seats will 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 shall be diminished from 15 to 10.

Second, Mazhilis deputies will likely be elected in accordance with a blended system. Seventy % of Mazhilis deputies will be chosen by proportional elections, and 30 % might be immediately 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 constitution, which instituted a weaker constitutional council. The president still maintains a powerful influence over the Constitutional Court docket’s make-up, nevertheless, with the power to pick the court’s chairman and 4 of the judges; parliament chooses the other three.

Tokayev has emphasized the significance of native governance, marked by the first-ever direct election of village akims and plans to introduce three new oblasts that can bring authorities our bodies closer to the populations they represent. Perhaps essentially the most disappointing facet of proposed reforms is the dearth of serious movement on local representation 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 will have been chosen by the president. The precise to elect native management has been one of the crucial constant calls for from Almaty residents, and this try to create selection is in the end cosmetic.

The proposed reforms are important steps toward actual consultant government in Kazakhstan; nevertheless, they do not essentially constitute forward movement. Many of the amendments are merely reinstating mechanisms of checks on presidential power that beforehand existed, slightly than materially changing the connection between state and society, as Tokayev claims.