Azernews.Az

By Elena Kosolapova

On Apr. 26, Kazakhstan held the snap presidential election and its results hasn’t been a surprise for anyone.

As most experts expected, the incumbent president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose name is linked to the entire history of the modern independent Kazakhstan, was once again elected the country’s president.

Nazarbayev, moreover, won by a wide margin from his rivals: according to preliminary data, he garnered 97.7 percent of the vote. His opponents - Turgun Syzdykov, nominated by the Communist People’s Party, and the self-nominated Abelgazi Kusainov gathered 1.6 percent and 0.7 percent of the vote, respectively.

Such a distribution of the vote hasn’t been a surprise for the experts either.
At all the previous elections, held since the early 90s, Nazarbayev traditionally has been gaining an overwhelming majority of the vote. And the support to the Kazakh nation’s leader from the country’s people hasn’t decreased even a bit.

Moreover, with a number of problems in the region and the world, most of the Kazakhs today fear to change something, and they see in Nazarbayev the leader who can ensure the stability of the country.
Many experts have repeatedly underscored that with Nazarbayev’s participation in the election, the other candidates don’t have a chance to win.

Nazarbayev has been reelected as Kazakhstan’s president for the next five years. There is reason to believe that this timeframe will be difficult enough. When the Kazakh People’s Assembly made the initiative to hold the snap election, it was noted that the election will be held “under conditions of growing global economic crisis and complex international agenda.”

Therefore, it was proposed to elect a president in advance, so that not to deal with election preparation and focus on work in 2016 – the year when the economic crisis is projected to reach its highest level.

Kazakhstan’s president himself earlier touched upon the upcoming difficulties.

“The next years will be a time of global tests for the world, and for us too,” said Nazarbayev in November 2014, addressing the country’s people. “Not all the states will be able to adequately go through this stage. This frontier will be crossed only by the strong, united nations and countries.”

Nazarbayev also outlined how he intends to deal with the challenges of the present time. In particular, the program of the new economic policy, dubbed the ‘Nurly Zhol- The Path into the Future’ was presented in the president’s address to the people.
The program involves the diversification of the economy and the active development of the non-oil sector.

This same objective was one of the main tasks in Nazarbayev’s election program. He, in particular, proposed a series of economic reforms and set a goal to create three to four new export products.

The second objective set by Nazarbayev in his program is the country’s democratization. He said Kazakhstan will start this stage upon completion of economic reforms, and will generally adhere to the principle of “first - a strong state and economy, and then - politics”.

Another reform will be tightening of requirements for judges and law enforcement bodies, and securing the rule of law.
The fourth reform, planned by Nazarbayev, will be the creation of a modern, professional and autonomous state apparatus, where there will be no place for nepotism, protectionism and corruption.

Nazarbayev also said each executive must start with the bottom and go through all the administrative steps. A new system will be introduced for paying the wages of officials in line with the efficiency of their contribution to the administrative process.
Aside from that, the talented managers, as well as the foreign ones, will be invited to the civil service in the country.

And finally, according to Nazarbayev’s program, the Kazakh people’s identity should be based on the principle of citizenship, and not depend on the racial, ethnic, religious or social affiliation.
The development of the trinity of languages (Kazakh, Russian and English) is the key to the society’s consolidation, and the growth of its competitive ability, according to his program.

Nazarbayev said these five goals will be the most important ones in the next five years of his presidency.
To implement these institutional reforms, Nazarbayev intends to create a special commission. As the Kazakh nation’s leader said, the creation of such a commission would be his first decision in the new term.

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