By Felix Light, Mariya Gordeyeva and Tamara Vaal
ALMATY/ASTANA, June 30 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has promised a fundamental reshaping of the Central Asian nation under a new constitution that takes effect on Wednesday.
The new basic law, approved by referendum in March, creates a new post of vice-president and requires the holding of a snap election in August to a new, smaller parliament.
“We intend to carry out a major overhaul of the foundation of Kazakh statehood, the foundation and load-bearing structures of the country’s independence,” Tokayev, who is limited to a single term that expires in 2029, told parliament on Tuesday.
Kazakhstan’s status as a major oil producer and exporter makes it the most important economic player in Central Asia, which was part of the Soviet Union until 1991. Since independence, it has fostered warm ties with Russia, the West and China.
The constitution was drafted and approved in a matter of weeks this year, sparking widespread speculation about Tokayev’s political future.
Whoever becomes vice-president will be first in line to succeed the former diplomat and United Nations official, who took office in 2019 as the handpicked successor of Kazakhstan’s founding president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The new constitution represents “a new mechanism for handing over power from the second president to the third”, political analyst Rustam Burnashev told Reuters.
Though Tokayev has broadly retained Nazarbayev’s authoritarian system, their relationship broke down in 2022, after a bout of nationwide unrest killed hundreds. Tokayev called it a coup bid by a faction loyal to his predecessor.
Since then, Tokayev has characterised Nazarbayev’s three-decade rule as a period of unrestrained corruption and sought to erode his remaining influence.
Last month, the ruling Amanat party, which had dominated Kazakh politics under various names since being founded by Nazarbayev in 1999, was merged into the upstart Adilet party, which is led by close aides to Tokayev.
(Reporting by Felix Light and Mariya Gordeyeva in Almaty and Tamara Vaal in Astana; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Clarence Fernandez)
