Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the meeting of the working group on redistribution of powers that he intends to keep defense capabilities, external policy, public administration, protection of the Constitution, and ensuring the effective work between branches of Government under his competence, the presidential press service said.
The working group on redistribution of powers was created to work out proposals on transfer of some powers from the president to the Government and Parliament.
Meanwhile, the president’s powers in program approvals, appointments to the Government, and creation of new governing bodies could be transferred to the Government and the Parliament.
The head of the working group Adilbek Dzhaksybekov informed the president that the working group has already prepared three groups of proposals on the redistribution of powers.
The proposals of the first group are related to the powers in social and economic spheres and do not require changes to the Constitution. The second group of proposals envisages further improvement of the judicial and law enforcement systems and does not require amendment to the Constitution as well. The third group includes about 40 proposals to amend the Constitution, which envisage the expansion of the Parliament’s powers, Trend reports.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev pointed to the need for redistribution of powers between the president, Government and Parliament during a ceremonial meeting in honor of the 25th anniversary of independence of Kazakhstan in December 2016.
However, he did not rule out the possibility of amending the country’s Constitution.
The Director of the Analytical Center of the Institute of International Studies, Doctor of Political Science Andrey Kazantsev, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that there is a need for a gradual transfer of power in Kazakhstan today. "Now there is a search for different formulas of the transfer of power, and initiatives related to the transfer of the presidential powers to the government and the parliament is one of the directions. It is important for Kazakhstan to ensure continuity of policy after Nursultan Nazarbayev will resign in one way or another," he explained.
According to him, the transition of economic powers from the president to the government is most evident. "For example, the Russian economy is managed by the government, and the president mainly engaged in military and foreign policy issues. Therefore, this idea corresponds to a certain established tradition," Andrey Kazantsev noted, adding that Kazakhstan's economic policy will remain the same.
