Nursultan Nazarbayev stripped of honorary senator, leader of nation titles

Former president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has been stripped of his title of honorary senator. The chairman of Kazakhstan’s upper house of parliament Maulen Ashimbayev said that the title has been removed from the Senate regulations.

“There is a decision from the Constitutional Court, tomorrow we will decide to enforce the annulment of the law ‘On the first president.’ There was a question was about the title of honorary senator. Given that it’s been removed from the Constitution and that the law is going to be annulled, we’ve removed the title of honorary senator from our regulations,” Radio Liberty quoted Ashimbayev as saying.

The deputies adopted the new rules of the Parliament at a joint session of the houses on December 19, 2022, but there was no information about the abolition of the honorary senator status at that time.

On January 10, 2023, the Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan ruled to annul the law “On the first president,” which proclaimed Nursultan Nazarbayev the leader of the nation (Elbasy) and provided him with lifetime privileges and guarantees. On January 12, the chairman of the Senate, Maulen Ashimbayev, signed an order to convene a joint session of the houses of parliament, at which a final decision could be made to invalidate the law on the first president. The session is scheduled for January 13.

In January 2022, there were large-scale anti-government protests in Kazakhstan, during which more than 200 people died. One of the protesters’ demands was the removal of Nursultan Nazarbayev from power, which was stipulated by the law “On the first president.” Later, the authorities held a referendum to amend the constitution, as a result of which Nazarbayev and members of his family were deprived of a number of privileges.

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