Report: Kazakhstan’s long-serving leader to seek an extension of his rule to 2017
By APThursday, September 16, 2010
Report: Kazakh leader to seek new term
ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A newspaper in Kazakhstan has reported that the Central Asian country’s aging leader will stand for another term at elections due in 2012.
An adviser to President Nursultan Nazarbayev told the Svoboda Slovo weekly in an interview published Thursday he would not be violating the constitution by seeking an extension to his two-decade long rule.
The 70-year-old Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan unchallenged since the late 1980s, when the vast energy-rich nation was still a Soviet republic.
He signed off on changes to the constitution in 2007 allowing him to run for office an unlimited number of times. Thursday’s news means the iron-fisted leader could be in office up to 2017, dampening speculation about potential successors.
