Kazakhstan allocates $36.8 million for upcoming referendum

According to Erulan Zhamaubayev, minister of finance the government is going to allocate about $36.8 million to conduct the country-wide referendum. The main goal of the plebiscite is to know what people think about the amendments to the Constitution of Kazakhstan.

«We are going to allocate $36,817,600 from the state budget to cover costs of the upcoming constitutional referendum. The final figures were given to us by the Central Election Commission. The government has taken a respective decision and the funds will be allocated,» Zhamaubayev said.

On May 5, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law on amendments to the Constitutional Law on Referendum along with the edict on a country-wide referendum on amendments to the Constitution. The plebiscite is scheduled for June 5.

The new Constitution is going to nail down an equidistant status of the president from any political party and ban close relatives of the president to hold executive positions in the quasi-state sector.

Moreover, the new version of the main law is going to exclude articles about the role and privileges of the country’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Central Election Commission has already approved a schedule plan for the main events associated with the preparation and implementation of the referendum. For example, the government should announce the composition of territorial and district election commissions for the referendum no later than May 15.