Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday unexpectedly rejected a plan to hold a referendum on prolonging his rule until 2020, saying that he would instead call early presidential polls. The announcement stunned Kazakhstan after parliament earlier this month agreed the controversial referendum should go ahead but also came after rare criticism of the ex-Soviet state by its Western ally the United States.
The referendum was backed by the ruling Nur-Otan party which sees Nazarbayev as a Kazakh equivalent of historic figures like Turkey's Mustafa Kemal Ataturk but slammed by rights groups as creating an authoritarian state.
"As the head of state, I have to assume the whole weight of a historic responsibility," Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan for its entire history as an independent state, said in an address to the nation. "I cannot set the wrong precedent for future politicians. I have taken the decision not to hold the referendum."
He said that instead he would submit a proposal to parliament to hold early presidential elections "even though this will reduce my current mandate by almost two years." Nazarbayev's current term is due to expire in 2012 and the referendum plan had envisaged scrapping elections in 2012 and 2017.
"Instead of the choice between elections or referendum that has been dividing our society I propose a formulation that will unite us all. I will put before parliament a proposal to hold early elections," he explained. He did not give further details on when the elections would be held but his comments implied they would come within months. "I suggest we see this moment not as an acceptance or refusal but rather as a historic moment of democracy," said Nazarbayev.
Kazakhstan's constitutional court had paved the way for the shock announcement earlier in the day by saying that the referendum plan did not correspond to the constitution. The referendum plan had caused a rare rift between Kazakhstan and its ally the United States which said the move would represent a setback for democracy in the world's ninth largest country.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally told Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev of US concerns at a meeting in Washington last week. "We hope that Kazakhstan will renew its commitments to democracy, good governance and human rights," Clinton said. The protests in Egypt against long-serving strongman Hosni Mubarak which have prompted the United States to urge radical political change from Cairo may also not have passed unnoticed in Astana. Supporters praise Nazarbayev for turning the ex-Soviet state into Central Asia's leading economic power but critics complain it has become an authoritarian regime with servile media and harassment of opposition activists.