Politics
| Kazakhstan is a constitutional
republic. The president is the head of state. The president also is
the commander in chief of the armed forces and may veto legislation
that has been passed by the Parliament. President Nursultan Nazarbayev,
who has been in office since Kazakhstan became independent, won a
new 7-year term in the 1999. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet
of Ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There
are three deputy prime ministers and 16 ministers in the Cabinet.
Daniyal K. Akhmetov became the Prime Minister in June 2003 but resigned
8 January 2007. Kazakhstan has a bicameral Parliament, made up of the lower house (the Majilis) and upper house (the Senate). Single mandate districts popularly elect 67 seats in the Majilis; there also are ten members elected by party-list vote rather than by single mandate districts. The Senate has 39 members. Two senators are selected by each of the elected assemblies (Maslikhats) of Kazakhstan's 16 principal administrative divisions (14 regions, or oblasts, plus the cities of Astana and Almaty). The president appoints the remaining seven senators. Majilis deputies and the government both have the right of legislative initiative, though the government proposes most legislation considered by the Parliament. |
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Nursultan Nazarbayev |
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