Azernews.Az

ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Friday he plans to remain leader of Central Asia's largest economy for as long as his health will allow, whether or not a plan to skip elections is approved, Reuters reported.

Nazarbayev, in his annual state-of-the-nation address, said Kazakhstan's constitutional council would decide on a proposed referendum, supported by parliament and more than half of the country's voters, to extend his rule unopposed until 2020.

But he also made clear that he would stand for election in 2012 if the referendum proposal -- which has been criticised by the United States and the European Union -- were to be rejected by the council.

Parliament voted on Jan. 14 in favour of the plebiscite, which would clear the way for Nazarbayev to rule the resource-rich nation unopposed for a third decade, skipping presidential elections set for 2012 and 2017.

"Whatever decision we take with you after the verdict of the constitutional council, I promise that, if my health and stamina allow me and if there is such unanimous support from the people, I will work as long as I'm allowed," Nazarbayev, aged 70, said.

More than half of Kazakhstan's 9 million registered voters signed a petition calling for the referendum to extend Nazarbayev's rule over the world's 9th-largest country by area.

"The main thing is that I have understood the signal from the people: don't leave the post, continue working," he said to a standing ovation in parliament.

Nazarbayev, a former steelworker known as "Papa" to many Kazakhs, is the only leader independent Kazakhstan has known. Public criticism of the president is taboo and not a single opposition politician sits in parliament.

Many foreign investors, who have poured more than $150 billion into Kazakhstan during Nazarbayev's two decades in power, rate the absence of a clear succession plan as the single biggest threat to political stability in the ex-Soviet state.

Opponents of the referendum say Kazakhstan, which has never held elections judged free and fair by international observers, has deserted principles to which it agreed when chairing the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe last year.

Nazarbayev on Jan. 6 rejected the plan to extend his powers via a referendum, but his veto was overruled by the unanimous Jan. 14 vote in parliament.

The president, who has ruled Kazakhstan for two decades, can stand for election an unlimited number of times.