Over half of Kazakh voters approve extension of presidential terms

Over half of Kazakh voters, 5.016 million (55.2% of the population),
have expressed support for a referendum on the prolongation of the
presidential terms of Nursultan Nazarbayev until December 6, 2020,
head of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Kyandyk Turgankulov
said in Astana on Thursday.

The CEC approved the protocol on checking the signatures of citizens
in the request for a referendum, RIA Novosti reports.

The CEC registered an initiative group for the referendum on December
27. The initiative group needed at least 200,000 signatures of
citizens, representing all regions, Astana and Alma-Ata at an equal
ratio.

However, territorial electoral commissions found over 194,000 invalid
signatures. The main reason for classifying a signature as invalid is
the mismatch of a citizen's home address with the region were the
signatures were collected. This means that the same person may appear
in several signature sheets. There were citizens under 18 years
putting signatures as well.

There were also signature sheets filled incorrectly.
Turgankulov said that there have been no complaints or violations of
the law in collecting the signatures.

The president will receive the report on checking validity of the
signatures, according to point 2 of article 16 of the Kazakh
Constitution.

At the end of last week Nazarbayev declined the request to hold a
referendum on the prolongation of presidential terms. However, the
deputies plan to overcome the veto.

The 70-year old President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been in power for
over 20 years. Presidential elections are planned for 2012. Nazarbayev
will take part in the process.

Kazakhstan had a referendum on prolongation of presidential terms.
Nazarbayev had his terms of power prolonged in 1995 to 1999.