President Tokayev of Kazakhstan suggests early presidential elections

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has suggested holding snap presidential elections this fall. He made this statement today during his address to the people of Kazakhstan.

«I suggest conducting early presidential elections this fall,» he said.

As the president noted, the new mandate of trust is necessary to bring the pivotal and comprehensive reforms in Kazakhstan to a successful result.

«Interests of our state are my top priorities. Therefore, I am ready to cut my term of office short and call for the early presidential elections,» he said.

Tokayev has also revealed his plan to revise the length of a presidential term and cut the number of terms a president can serve in Kazakhstan.

«I suggest limiting the length of a presidential term to seven years with no re-elections,» the president stated.

On March 19, 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first president of Kazakhstan announced his resignation from office, even though he kept the position of the chairman of the Security Council, head of the Nur Otan political party and the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, back then a speaker of the Senate, became the acting president. Nazarbayev’s daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva was appointed the speaker of the Senate instead of Tokayev the next day on March 20. Later, she was removed from this position.

On June 9, 2019, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was elected the new president of Kazakhstan with 70.76% of the votes. Amirzhan Kosanov, the candidate of the Ult Tagdyry social movement showed the second biggest result (16.02%). Daniya Espayeva from Ak Zhol political party accounted for the third result (5.2%) during that presidential election.