The draft of the new Constitution of Kazakhstan includes effective legal mechanisms to protect against artificial inaction and protracted institutional crisis scenarios. This was stated by Mazhilis deputy Murat Abenov in his speech at the tenth meeting of the Commission on Constitutional Reform.
In particular, the original wording of Articles 46 and 62 provided for the dissolution of the Kurultai in the event of refusal to renegotiate key appointments, which does not correspond to the formula "Strong President - influential Parliament - accountable Government."
“The grounds for dissolving the Constituent Assembly have been hotly debated in society, especially on social networks and among experts. Therefore, the faction of the “AMANAT” party proposes to change the concept of “the President dissolves” in Articles 46 and 62 to “the President has the right to dissolve”. As a result, the possibility of artificial dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and political crisis will be eliminated. The proposed clarification is a kind of protection against shaking the system from within, destabilizing it through artificially created disagreements, and trying to drag the country into a protracted institutional crisis. These changes correspond to the logic of reforms and the Just Kazakhstan model. I would also like to suggest that the members of the Commission introduce a clarification in the second paragraph of Article 62, instead of “appointing a candidate proposed by the President”, to “appointing each candidate proposed by the President”. This will allow to avoid inconsistencies in this article,” the commission member noted.
In his speech, Murat Abenov explained the logic of introducing the institution of Vice President.
"We consciously choose a clear and recognized international model of Vice-President, well-known to the world community. This will increase the popularity and political weight of Kazakhstan and make our system of government more understandable to external partners," he explained the constitutional amendment.
In addition, according to the Majilis deputy, misunderstanding the amendments to the draft Constitution will lead to a distortion of the essence of the reforms. Therefore, we need to resolve everything today.
"Today, the phenomenon of cancel culture, that is, the "culture of cancellation", is gaining momentum in society. We observe that in different countries, public debate goes beyond the limits: people are not convinced with words, but are labeled as "needing to be canceled". The draft constitution establishes a clear value system in this regard: human honor and dignity are inviolable and protected by law. This is not about banning criticism. Our path is open debate and responsibility," he emphasized.
The deputy also drew attention to paragraph 6 of Article 5 of the draft Constitution, which has raised many issues in society.
"The thesis that this norm is creating a 'state within a state' is actively spreading online. This is not true. Kazakhstan remains a single state with a single legal space. Alatau is neither an autonomy nor a special territory. This is our Kazakhstani city. It provides for a certain financial autonomy, with accelerated procedures for business to create new jobs and attract investments," Abenov concluded.