Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said he won’t hand power to his children to succeed him.
“I’m not envisaging succession for my children, I don’t think that’s a question for us. Our transfer of power is spelled out by the constitution,” Bloomberg cited him as saying.
“Until 2020, I’m going to work. And we’ll meet again in 2020,” Nazarbayev, who won another five-year mandate in a 2015 election, said.
His comments appear to rule out the leadership chances of his elder daughter, Dariga, whose appointment to the Senate in September was viewed by some analysts as putting her in line for succession.
Under the Kazakh constitution, the Senate’s chairman becomes head of state if the president dies or leaves office early.
Nazarbayev’s middle daughter, Dinara, shares control over London-traded Halyk Savings Bank, the country’s second-largest by assets, with her husband Timur Kulibayev. The president’s youngest daughter, Aliya, heads the Elitstroy construction company.