Topic: Kazakhstan: President Voted In For Life If He Likes

New York Times
May 19, 2007
Pg. 7

By C. J. Chivers
Parliament voted to exempt President Nursultan Nazarbayev from a provision in the Constitution limiting presidents to serving two terms. The vote effectively clears the way for Mr. Nazarbayev, a former Communist Party official who has led Kazakhstan since its independence from the Soviet Union, to become president for life. Mr. Nazarbayev has never been elected by a poll judged free or fair by Western election monitors and has long been dogged by corruption allegations and complaints of crackdowns on the opposition and the news media. But Kazakhstan, which gave up its abandoned Soviet nuclear arsenal after independence, has been spared the wars, terrorism, personality cults and much of the disorder of other Central Asian states. Many of Mr. Nazarbayev’s critics say he has significant popular support.