Kazakhstan parliament dissolved

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev dissolved parliament on Wednesday and called an early election on August 18. to speed the passage of political reforms.
The new, enlarged lower chamber will have additional powers in picking the prime minister but the reforms, many of which have been signed into law by Nazarbayev, also lift any limit on his own presidential term in office.
Nazarbayev has said the reforms move the country, which has never held an election judged free and fair, closer towards democracy but the opposition says they are only likely to tighten his control. A parliamentary election had not been scheduled until 2009 in the oil-producing Central Asian state. In a speech to members of his Nur-Otan party, which holds a majority in parliament, Nazarbayev, 66, made clear he expected the ruling party to win the election.