Eleven million voters are invited to vote on 56 amendments to the Constitution of Kazakhstan. According to President Tokayev, it is a question of entering a new era, after that of the authoritarian Nursultan Nazarbayev, his predecessor.
With our regional correspondent, Regis Gente
A step towards the New Kazakhstan », towards a « second republic is how President Tokayev’s team qualifies this Sunday’s referendum. The powers of the Head of State are reduced, says Ak Orda, the seat of the presidency, while those of the Parliament are increased. Mechanisms for citizen participation in the political life of the country created and the Constitutional Court restored.
An unconvinced civil society
But for many observers and critics of the country, all this represents only cosmetic changes. The nature of the regime, hyper-presidential and authoritarian, would in no way be affected. The methods are the same elsewhere, they say. The 56 amendments to the 1995 Constitution were all drafted by government experts. No popular debate has been organized and the consultation was only announced a month ago… thus leaving no time for civil society to examine changes that are less proposed than imposed.
No doubt that the yes » is going to prevail very largely. It will be up to President Tokayev to establish practices that will prove that Kazakhstan has indeed entered a new era.
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