NUR-SULTAN, April 29. /TASS/: Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has proposed holding a referendum on amending the country’s constitution.
"I believe that constitutional changes through a popular vote will make the people’s will perfectly clear," he pointed out at a meeting of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan on Friday.
According to Tokayev, "a referendum will allow all citizens to directly participate in deciding the country’s future and will also strengthen a policy aimed at fully democratizing the country and building a new Kazakhstan."
The Kazakh president noted that a referendum was an important democratic institution but Kazakhstan had last held one in 1995, when the current constitution had been adopted.
"I have initiated fundamental constitutional amendments that will radically change the country’s political system. We are moving to a new model of government, a new model of interaction between the government and society," the president explained, adding that a working group had prepared amendments to 33 articles of the constitution.
A bill on introducing constitutional amendments has been submitted to the Constitutional Council that will soon announce its decision. The amendments particularly limit presidential powers, strengthen the role of parliament and local legislatures, and recreate the Constitutional Court.
