A vast country with huge mineral resources, Kazakhstan has approved a new constitution in a landslide vote. It may not all be good news.
Kazakhstan’s political overhaul
Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev yesterday signed a new constitution that will strengthen his power and could enable him to stay in power after 2029, despite a single-term limit. A referendum on Sunday saw 87 per cent of Kazakhs vote in favour of the changes, which replace almost all the articles in the country’s 1995 constitution, with a turnout of 73 per cent.
Tokayev said the new constitution would strengthen Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, protect its territorial integrity and guarantee citizens’ rights and freedoms, while ensuring environmental protection and upholding the rule of law. He described the document as “an unshakeable symbol of solidarity and the enduring unity of our people”.
Sweeping changes to the political system include the abolition of the senate so that parliament will have just one chamber, the Kurultai, with 145 members serving five-year terms. The constitution reinstates the post of vice-president, who will be nominated by the president but will need the approval of a majority in parliament and will automatically assume the duties of head of state if the president resigns or dies in office.
READ MORE
The president will also appoint the 126 members of a People’s Council, a consultative body that will have the right to initiate legislation. And he will appoint the heads of the supreme court, the electoral commission, the audit chamber, the state security service, the central bank and the human rights commission, without the need for parliamentary approval.
A vast country the size of western Europe with a population of just 20.5 million, Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north, China to the east and Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to the south, with the Caspian Sea to the west. Rich in oil, gas and mineral resources, it accounts for 60 per cent of the GDP of Central Asia and it is the biggest and most powerful of the five former Soviet republics in the region.
Kazakhstan has become an increasingly important source of energy for the European Union since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago. But it is also an essential hub for sanctions-evading goods moving to and from Russia.
Kazakhstan was governed by Russia for about two centuries until its independence in 1991 and ethnic Russians still make up almost 15 per cent of the population. Although the EU is now Kazakhstan’s biggest trading partner, with China in second place, Russia remains its most important political and security partner.
This was evident in 2022, when Tokayev called in troops from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to help restore order after an uprising that saw Kazakh police opening fire on unarmed protesters, killing more than 200.
After that unrest, Tokayev purged political networks associated with Nursultan Nazarbayev, the autocrat he had replaced in 2019 after almost three decades in power. A former diplomat, Tokayev initially promised a new, open and democratic Kazakhstan as he pursued a multi-vector foreign policy that maintained balanced relations with Russia and the western powers while deepening ties with China and Turkey.
Recent years have seen an erosion of civil rights, and in the weeks before the constitutional referendum, the authorities detained journalists, lawyers and bloggers who spoke out against the changes. The new constitution expands limitations on free speech to include harming the reputation and honour of others and damaging public morals.
The new constitution, like the old one, limits the president to a single, seven-year term and Tokayev’s is due to end in 2029, by which time he will be 76. But the president used a more modest constitutional overhaul in 2022 to reset his term in office by starting a fresh seven-year term four years after he came to power and he could use the new constitution to pull off the same trick again.
Please let me know what you think and send your comments, thoughts or suggestions for topics you would like to see covered to denis.globalbriefing@irishtimes.com
