Kazakhstan celebrates Constitution Day

ASTANA, August 30 - Sputnik. Today, August 30, Kazakhstanis celebrate the Constitution Day - one of the main public holidays.

In 2023, the country celebrates 28 years since the adoption of the main law, which determines its place in the world community and sets the course for development.

During this time, the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan has undergone several changes and additions, abandoning the super-presidential form of government, thereby strengthening the authority of the parliament.

Read in the material of Sputnik Kazakhstan what changes were made to the main law of the country.

History of the Constitution of Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, the Constitution was adopted twice. The republic gained its independence in 1991, but only in 1995 its basic law was finally approved.

The first attempts were made in 1993. Then the Constitution included many legal norms - the principle of separation of powers, the recognition of the Kazakh language as the state language, the recognition of the president as the head of state, and others. In this form, the document lasted two years.

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And in 1995, a new Constitution was adopted at a national referendum, which is in force to this day. Before the adoption of the new law of the country, the population actively discussed the draft Constitution. Then more than 30 thousand collective discussions of the project were held, in which more than three million citizens took part. As a result of mass discussions, almost 30 thousand proposals and comments were made. More than 1,100 amendments and additions were made to 55 articles.

However, during the years of independence, amendments and additions to the Constitution were made six times: in 1998, 2007, 2011, 2017, 2019 and 2022.

How the Constitution of Kazakhstan has changed
In 1998, amendments and additions were made to 19 articles of the Basic Law. The changes affected the terms and powers of the President, deputies of the Senate and the Mazhilis, the upper age limit of 60 years for a civil servant, provided earlier in Article 33, was removed. In addition, the 1998 amendments stipulated that 10 out of 70 Mazhilis deputies were elected on the basis of party lists under the proportional representation system.

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More significant constitutional amendments were adopted in 2007. At a joint meeting of the chambers of parliament, amendments were made regarding the form of the state structure of the country.

Kazakhstan became a unitary state with a presidential-parliamentary form of government. Taken together, they were as follows:

transition to a proportional electoral system;

strengthening the status of parliament by introducing a rule on the approval of the prime minister by a parliamentary majority and the procedure for consultations between the president and party factions when appointing the head of government;

The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan was endowed with a constitutional status and received the right to delegate its representatives to the Mazhilis and the Senate of the Parliament in accordance with the established quota.

In February 2011, the Constitution was amended to establish the constitutional basis for the appointment and holding of extraordinary presidential elections. Thus, paragraph 3-1 was introduced into Article 41 on empowering the president to call early presidential elections.

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In March 2017, the law "On Amendments and Additions to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan" was signed, according to which a number of presidential powers were transferred to other branches of power.

Two years later, in March 2019, the Constitution was amended to rename the capital of Kazakhstan: Astana received a new name - Nur-Sultan, in honor of the country's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Large-scale changes to the Constitution were made after the referendum in 2022.

What has changed in the Constitution after the referendum
The Republican referendum on amendments and additions to the Constitution of Kazakhstan was held on June 5, 2022.

The main changes that affected the main law:

Kazakhstan is moving from a super-presidential form of government to a presidential one with a strong parliament.

The land and its subsoil, water, flora and fauna, and other natural resources belong to the people.

Close relatives of the president are not entitled to hold the positions of political civil servants, heads of subjects of the quasi-public sector.

Kazakhstanis can independently apply to the Constitutional Court.

The death penalty is prohibited. No one has the right to arbitrarily deprive a person of life.

The deputy corps of the Mazhilis will be formed according to a mixed electoral system.

The presidential quota in the Senate will be reduced, the quota of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan in the Mazhilis will be abolished.

The majority system will allow recalling a deputy at the request of voters.

Provisions on the special role and privileges of the first president have been excluded.

The turnout in the referendum was 68.05%. 77.18% of those who voted supported the introduction of amendments to the Constitution.

Law "On amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Republic of Kaz