Kazakhstan may hold referendum on constitutional amendments in early June - deputy

NUR-SULTAN. May 5 (Interfax) - Kazakh Mazhilis deputy Armen Kozhakhmetov does not rule out that a referendum on constitutional amendments might be held in early June.

"We are expecting a presidential order [on the referendum] to be signed today or tomorrow, and we will see everything in the order. [This is] expected to happen on a vacant date, of course, on a day off, and June 5 is a day off," Kozhakhmetov told reporters in parliament on Thursday.

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 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.

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

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.