EUReporter: Political reforms continue in Kazakhstan

: 28.08.2023 in 11:49; In the lens of the world media; CCS under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; CCS under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan celebrates its Constitution Day on 30 August. It’s a public holiday when festivities, concerts and exhibitions across the country mark the adoption of the Kazakh Constitution in 1995. The decision in a referendum 28 years ago to establish the country as a democratic secular state remains a momentous one, when the ideals of freedom, equality and concord were proclaimed. However, the Republic’s highest legal text has been amended on five occasions, most recently and comprehensively in 2022, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

«The events of January 2022, when initially legitimate protests about fuel prices turned to lawlessness and violence, are rightly remembered in Kazakhstan as a tragedy. But the response of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was to accelerate democratic reforms, not reverse them as the ringleaders behind the violence seem to have hoped.

Nearly two years on, Kazakhstan continues to progress the political reforms that the President and his government initiated and to build truly democratic institutions, going deep into society and well beyond the important reforms to the roles of President and Parliament. Recently, State Counsellor Erlan Karin remarked how in those two years Kazakh citizens have elected 1,668 akims (heads of local government) in towns, villages and other settlements as part of the presidential political reforms», - writes Nick Powell.