The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, can be a president for life, now that constitutional constraints on term limits have been removed:
Parliament proposed last week to allow Nazarbayev, in power since 1989 and whose current term expires in 2012, to stay in office for an unlimited number of terms in the oil-rich state. Nazarbayev signed amendments on Monday and they achieved full validity with their official publication on Tuesday.
The proposal went through without a referendum or much of a public debate. And, according to some voices in Kazakhstan, its for the better:
Nazarbayev’s supporters say that prolonging his rule would ensure stability and investment continuity.
Interestingly, the term limits were removed only for Nazarbaev, as all other future presidents of the country, according to the constitution, will continue to face a two-term limits.
Stability tied to an individual, rather than a set of institutions, is not uncommon in post-Soviet republics. After the chaotic nature of the early to mid 1990s and collapse of old socio-economic structures, the growth and stability of the recent years have been a long awaited change.
Although much of the growth has often been the result of high natural resource prices, rather than broad-based economic reforms and development, improvements in socio-economic conditions have generally been tied to individuals in charge (just as the blame for failures is sometimes put on individuals, rather than systems). Taking into the account a rather strong and consistent growth in Kazakhstan, with its vast oil and natural gas reserves, the support for Nazarbaev is not surprising.
Still, individuals do not ensure growth and stability – its institutions that do! Does this mean that the next president of Kazakhstan should be able to exploit the political landscape and push through similar changes? What if a president decides to use the power to restrict the political space and reverse economic reforms? What if, because of a ‘watered down’ constitution, there are no institutional constraints to prevent this from happening?
Published Date: May 25, 2007