Senior member of Kazakh presidential advisory body proposes early presidential poll
ASTANA. Feb 14 (Interfax) - A deputy chairman of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan on Saturday proposed an early election for president of the country.
"The arguments are: First of all, we'll have two election processes in 2016 - elections for the Mazhilis of parliament and a presidential election. Naturally, this is a kind of legal problem, and, plus, experts argue that 2016 will see the peak of the global financial and economic crisis, and crises of systems and world outlooks and civilizational crises as well," Anatoly Bashmakov, put forward the initiative at a meeting of the Assembly Council, told the Vlast website.
"One way or another, the elections will distract public attention and the attention of the government, and, moreover, there will be extra financial expenditures. Therefore, I proposed bringing the presidential election forward to this year in order to mitigate such a concentration of elections," he said.
Besides, an early election would put an end to "fruitless discussions" about who will succeed incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Bashmakov said.
"All over the place they're saying, who will be his successor? In other words, behind-the-scenes games are beginning - there are those who are getting ready to become the successor and those who are grooming their own proteges. [With an early election] we would kill off all those fruitless discussions at one go. There is the leader of the nation, he is today one of the leaders who are respected in the world," Bashmakov said.
The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan is a presidential consultative body. It is not authorized to formally propose legislation, but its sessions have resulted in important initiatives that were embodied in laws and presidential decrees.
