Kazakh parliament passes bill to cancel ban on referendum regarding alteration of Nazarbayev's status

NUR-SULTAN. May 5 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's Mazhilis backed up the Senate's amendments to a bill changing and augmenting the Kazakh constitutional law "On Republican Referendum" at a plenary meeting on Thursday.

The bill has thus been approved by the parliament and will be submitted to the head of state to be signed into law.

The Senate amendment crossed out a provision, which bans a referendum regarding a change of the status of First Kazakh President, Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev.

There are also amendments aimed at unifying the form of voting papers in a republican referendum.

The amendments lay down norms for the invalidation of voting papers in which not a single answer is given to the referendum question and the recognition as valid of voting papers in which all possible answers to the question are ticked.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed that Kazakhstan hold a referendum on constitutional amendments.

Tokayev initiated the constitutional amendments and presented them in an address to the nation in March 2022. Amendments will be made to over 30 articles of the constitution. In particular, the status of the first president of Kazakhstan will be excluded from the text of the constitution.