Members of an election commission remove ballots from a box to count them at a polling station after the Nationwide Referendum in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on June 5, 2022. (VLADIMIR TRETYAKOV / NUR.KZ VIA AP)
NUR-SULTAN – Voters in Kazakhstan supported constitutional amendments proposed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in a referendum, the Central Election Commission said on Monday.
Tokayev has promoted the reform as a foundation for a new social contract in the oil-rich Central Asian country allied with Russia, and analysts say the vote could be seen as a rehearsal for his bid to win a second term as president.
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The commission said that 77.18 percent of votes in the Sunday referendum were in favour of the amendments, which decentralise decision-making and strip former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev of his "national leader" status. Turnout was 68.06 percent.
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Tokayev proposed the reform package after putting down a coup attempt amid unrest in January and removing his former patron Nazarbayev and his relatives from important positions in the public sector.