Kazakhstan must approve adjustments to its status in a referendum on Sunday, according to exit polls, after fatal unrest ended founding leader Nursultan Nazarbayev’s three-decade grip on Central Asia’s richest country.
Three exit polls showed the constitutional adjustments had been approved with more than 74 voters in favor, a government telegram channel said, with official effects expected on Monday.
The will of a “New Kazakhstan” in the wake of violence came from the Nazarbayev type to update him as president in 2019, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
But it is the lack of special privileges for Nazarbayev, 81, the ultimate replacement in the constitution.
Even after resigning from the presidency, Nazarbayev retained the constitutional name of “Elbasy” or “Leader of the Nation,” a role that allowed him to influence policymaking, regardless of his official position.
Another amendment prevents the president’s relatives from holding government positions, a transparent nod to the influence of Nazarbayev’s circle of relatives and in-laws, who have lost vital positions as a result of the violence.
The Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan claimed an initial turnout of 68. 4 for the vote.
Polling stations in the largest city of Almaty saw a decline in the electorate in a clear and windy summer.
“It has its position in our history textbooks, but all citizens will have to be equivalent in the constitution,” he said, after voting at his university, where a small activist organization rallied for the release of political prisoners and opposed voting.
“This is a formality to cement the position of existing management. It will be the same,” he said.
Protests erupted in the oil-producing west after a New Year’s walk, but Almaty, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away, became the epicenter of armed clashes, looting and arson.
– Fight for –
But the treason arrest of a best friend of Nazarbayev’s, who at the time was head of national security, fueled the hypothesis that a struggle for leadership was at the center of the violence.
The former and current presidents are allies of neighboring Russia, and the arrival of more than 2,000 peacekeepers from a Moscow-led security bloc strengthened Tokayev on stage in January.
Nazarbayev has made few public appearances since the crisis, but voted Sunday in the capital after speaking out in favor of Tokayev and the changes.
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Originally as Kazakhstan to Adopt Constitutional Changes: Exit Polls