The 2007 amendment to the Constitution of Kazakhstan modified Kazakhstan's basic law, on May 18, 2007. The changes followed the conclusion of the activities of the 'State Commission on Democratization' formed two years previously. In a speech on May 16 to the

Joint Session A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicame ...

of the Chambers of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, President

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in off ...

summarized the development of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

since independence in 1991, and outlined his proposed constitutional changes. The main changes proposed by the President were as follows: *The reduction of the presidential term from 7-years to 5-years, coming into effect after the next election in 2012 *To adopt

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

for the Majilis, or lower Chamber of deputies *To increase the number of senators selected by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

, from 7 to 15 *To give to the Senate the power of consultation on the appointment of a President of the National Bank *To increase the number of Majilis deputies to 107 - 98 deputies elected by proportional representation and 9 deputies representing the Assembly of the Peoples' of Kazakhstan. The total number of the parliamentary deputies will therefore increase by 38 and will amount to 154 *To strengthen the powers of political parties by depriving members of the Majilis of their mandate in the event that they are expelled from their party *To make the government accountable not only to the Head of State, but to the whole Parliament; by giving the Government a vote of no-confidence. It will be sufficient for the Majilis to have a simple majority of deputies' votes compared with the previously required two thirds of votes, in order to dismiss the government *To change, the procedure for forming the

Constitutional Council Constitutional Council might refer to: * Constitutional Council (Chad) * Constitutional Council (France) * Constitutional Council (Ivory Coast) * Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka) * Constitutional Council (Cambodia) * Constitutional Council (Kaz ...

and the Central Election Commission. This will occur via the introduction of a law whereby two thirds of the Constitutional Council, the Central Election Commission and Auditing Committee will be formed by Parliament *To change the procedure of forming the Government, where the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

is appointed by the President, so that the approval of such appointments, and consequently that of the entire Government, is delegated to the Majilis *To introduce a change whereby the composition of the Government shall be formed according to the proposals of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister will also represent the parliamentary majority party *To abolish the constitutional prohibition of state funding of

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

's *To develop a procedure for the partial funding of political parties from the state budget *To abolish the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in Kazakhstan In addition to these proposals the Kazakh parliament passed an additional amendment two days later, lifting the term-limit clause on the first

President of Kazakhstan The president of the Republic of Kazakhstan ( kk, Қазақстан Республикасының Президенті, Qazaqstan Respublikasynyñ Prezidentı; russian: Президент Республики Казахстан, Prezident Respu ...

. The constitution limits a president to two five-year terms, but this amendment allows the incumbent president--Nazarbayev--to run for an unlimited number of five year terms. Some critics argued this move paved the way for him to become ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' President for life.Nursultan A. Nazarbayev could remain in office for the rest of his life
, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2007.

References

{{Reflist

Law of Kazakhstan Government of Kazakhstan

Amendment to the Constitution of Kazakhstan

See also

References