The Kazakh parliament has approved amendments to the Constitution,
allowing President Nazarbayev to stay in power until December 6, 2020,
after a referendum, RIA Novosti reports.
44 out of 44 senators and 106 out of 106 deputies of the lower chamber
of parliament voted for the referendum, Parliament Speaker Oral
Mukhamedzhanov said at a joint session of the two chamber on Friday.
The 70-year old Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been in
power for over 20 years. Kazakhstan will have presidential elections
in 2012 with Nazarbayev's involvement.
The head of the Central Electoral Commission Kuandyk Turgankulov said
that either the president signs the amendments to the Constitution or
they will be put for a referendum.
He clarified that the initiative group has collected over 5 million
signatures for the referendum and presented the protocol to the
presidential administration.
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. 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. Territorial electoral
commissions found over 194,000 invalid signatures.
Nazarbayev declined the proposal to hold a referendum at the end of last week.
The deputies said on Friday that they planned to overcome the president's veto.
Kazakhstan had a referendum on prolongation of presidential terms.
Nazarbayev had his terms of office prolonged from 1995 to 1999.
