Kazakh president trims predecessor’s powers: media

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev approved Monday amendments to a law stripping his long-ruling predecessor of key policy-making privileges, government media said, after last month’s bloody unrest exposed a power struggle.

Tokayev’s mentor Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81, was widely seen as Kazakhstan’s top decision-maker prior to the January violence that left more than 200 people dead after protests that began over a gas price hike spiralled out of control.

Nazarbayev handpicked the former diplomat to succeed him as president after calling time on nearly three decades in office in 2019 while retaining other important state positions.

But the amendments signed into law by Tokayev on Monday removed the requirement of the government to agree domestic and foreign policy initiatives with Nazarbayev, trimming a law governing Nazarbayev’s constitutional status as Kazakhstan’s “Leader of the Nation”, pro-government news agency Tengrinews reported.

State-funded media outlet Khabar said the amendments cancelled Nazarbayev’s “lifelong” chairmanships of the powerful security council and a consultative assembly set up to promote inter-ethnic harmony.

The presidential office did not immediately publish the text of the amended law.

Tokayev, 68, emerged from the crisis empowered, replacing Nazarbayev in posts held by the older man before the turn of the year that had been viewed as checks on Tokayev’s authority.

Nazarbayev had last year agreed to hand over leadership of the People’s Assembly of Kazakhstan to Tokayev, but the president’s announcement last month that he had assumed the security council chairmanship came as a shock.

He made the announcement on January 5 as cities across the country were gripped by violence that moved him to invite a detachment of more than 2,000 troops from a Russia-led security bloc into the country to help stabilise the vast, oil-rich country of 19 million people.

Nazarbayev, who was invisible during the clashes between government opponents and security forces, reappeared nearly two weeks later to describe himself as a mere “pensioner” who had willingly ceded all his powers to Tokayev.

He denied being in conflict with his successor.

Tokayev has since pledged to avoid the kind of constitutional tinkering that allowed Nazarbayev to stay in office as long as he did but has credited Nazarbayev with helping Kazakhstan become “a strong state”.