ASTANA: Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday unexpectedly rejected a program to have a referendum on prolonging his rule until 2020, saying that he would rather call early presidential polls. The announcement stunned Kazakhstan after parliament earlier this month agreed the controversial referendum should go ahead but also came after rare criticism of the ex-Soviet state by its Western ally the United States.
The referendum was backed by the ruling Nur-Otan party which sees Nazarbayev as a Kazakh equivalent of historic figures like Turkey's Mustafa Kemal Ataturk but slammed by rights groups as creating an authoritarian state. "As the chief of state, I get to take the whole burden of a historic responsibility," Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan for its entire story as an autonomous state, said in an reference to the nation. "I cannot set the wrong precedent for future politicians. I have interpreted the determination not to maintain the referendum." He said that instead he would render a proposition to parliament to make early presidential elections "even though this will subdue my current mandate by about two years." Nazarbayev's current terminus is due to go in 2012 and the referendum plan had envisaged scrapping elections in 2012 and 2017. "Instead of the choice between elections or referendum that has been dividing our society I suggest a preparation that will join us all. I will put before parliament a proposition to have early elections," he explained. He did not make further details on when the elections would be held but his comments implied they would fall within months. "I propose we see this moment not as an adoption or refusal but quite as a historic moment of democracy," said Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan's constitutional court had paved the way for the shock announcement earlier in the day by saying that the referendum plan did not correspond to the constitution. The referendum plan had caused a rare rift between Kazakhstan and its ally the United States which said the act would be a blow for democracy in the world's ninth largest country. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally told Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev of US concerns at a confluence in Washington last week. "We hope that Kazakhstan will renew its commitments to democracy, good government and human rights," Clinton said. The protests in Egypt against long-serving strongman Hosni Mubarak which have prompted the United States to urge radical political change from Cairo may also not get passed unnoticed in Astana. Supporters praise Nazarbayev for turn the ex-Soviet state into Central Asia's leading economic power but critics complain it has become an autocratic government with servile media and torment of opposition activists. The government were less than amused by the 2006 comedy hit movie "Borat" about a fictional Kazakh journalist and have since campaigned tirelessly to raise a glitzy new image. The referendum plan emerged just after Kazakhstan held a lavish summit of trans-Atlantic security group the OSCE in the showpiece new capital Astana, prompting criticism of blatant hypocrisy by opponents. Along with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who rose to power at the same time, Nazarbayev is the longest-serving leader in the old Soviet Union. Agence France-Presse
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