Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has introduced candidates for
president at a session of the ruling people's democratic party Nur
Otan (The Fatherland Light) on Friday. Kazakhstan will have early
elections on April 3, RIA Novosti reports.
Nazarbayev decided to hold early elections on January 31 when the
Constitutional Council rejected amendments to the Constitution. The
parliament passed the law on January 14, 2011. The law involved
organizing a referendum on extension of presidential terms until 2020,
replacing the elections of 2012.
Nazarbayev has been in power for 20 years. His decision to hold early
elections reduced his presidential terms by almost 2 years.
The 13th party congress unanimously voted to have Nazarbayev take part
in the elections, deputy head of the party Nurlan Nigmatullin said
after the voting on Friday.
Nazarbayev expressed readiness to stand for the elections. The
Strategy of Kazakh Development until 2020, adopted in 2010, is his
campaigning platform.
The Kazakh Constitution allows citizens aged 40 and over, with
knowledge of the state language and living in Kazakhstan for the last
15 years to become candidates for president. The Central Electoral
Commission has a special linguistic commission to determine the
language skills.
Candidate registration started on February 5 and will continue until
February 20. There are four independent candidates: Ualikhan Kaysarov,
Salim Oten, Musagali Duambekov, Amantay-kaji Asylbek. Kaysarov failed
to pass the exam on the state language. However, he registered on
Thursday to try to pass the exam again and take part in the process.
Duambekov passed the exam and started collecting electoral signatures.
Amantay-kaji Asylbek is still to pass the exam.
