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Kamchybek Tashiyev

After Firing Close Ally Tashiyev, Japarov Says Goal for Kyrgyzstan is Unity

Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov, who fired his powerful security chief Kamchybek Tashiyev last week, says he plans to wipe out the “disease” of division between northern and southern groups in the country. In an interview published on Monday by the state Kabar news agency, Japarov spoke about his broader vision for Kyrgyzstan in some of his most detailed comments since the dismissal of Tashiyev, the head of the State Committee for National Security who campaigned effectively against organized crime and was a close confidant of the president. Some criticism of Japarov suggests he made the move to amass more power as part of an authoritarian project for Kyrgyzstan. But the president said he wants to repair traditional rifts that he blamed for political unrest in the country over the years. His government has accused some political figures of trying to exploit Tashiyev’s stature and undermine Japarov’s government, though the former security chief said he accepted the president’s decision to remove him. Japarov is from northern Kyrgyzstan, while Tashiyev is from the south. For a time, their tight alliance appeared to be a way of smoothing over divisions between factions in the two regions. Japarov was sworn in as president in early 2021 after a tumultuous period that included his imprisonment, protests and victory in a landslide election. Tashiyev has been a supporter of Japarov all along, including during moves against the media that opponents described as democratic backsliding in a country once known for relative freedom of expression. “Since independence, politicians have been dividing the country into north and south,” Japarov said. “I saw this with my own eyes when I first entered politics in 2005. They divided the government so that half of it would be north, half south, or something like that in some ministry. And I was very sad.” Japarov said the divisions had been “disappearing” since he took office, thanks to a policy of rotating district chiefs, prosecutors, governors, judges and the heads of other institutions around the country. People from the south hold leadership jobs in the north, and vice versa, he said. “I will eventually eradicate the disease of North-South divide. It will take time,” Japarov said in the Kabar interview.

Emomali Rahmon

After Absence, Tajikistan’s Rahmon Highlights a Daily Schedule

He’s back. President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan met Kazakhstan’s foreign minister on Monday, two days after welcoming the head of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to Dushanbe. It might seem like routine business for the leader of a country. But the meetings, during which Rahmon was photographed and shown in video, followed more than two weeks during which Tajikistan’s president hadn’t been seen in public. The absence prompted some media and other online questions about his whereabouts and health, possibly prompting the presidency to issue a statement last week that said Rahmon had upcoming meetings. The 73-year-old president, who has held the post since 1994, posed for a photographed handshake with Kazakh Foreign Minister Yermek Kosherbayev that was posted on the website of Tajikistan’s presidential office. Rahmon’s account on X also showed a video of a meeting between him and Zou Jiayi of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Saturday. In addition, on Sunday, the presidential office posted a video of Rahmon congratulating Chinese President Xi Jinping on the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Speaking in a deep voice, Rahmon sat in front of an image of tree blossoms that are associated with the Spring Festival, which runs into early March. Rahmon´s son, Rustam Emomali, is chairman of the National Assembly and would take over as interim president if his father is unable to serve.

Referendum

Cost of Holding Referendum on Kazakhstan’s New Constitution Estimated at $42 Million

The cost of holding a national referendum on the adoption of Kazakhstan’s new Constitution is preliminarily estimated at 20.8 billion tenge (KZT), or approximately $42 million at the current exchange rate. The figure was announced at a press conference by Mikhail Bortnik, a member of Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission. According to Bortnik, the estimate is currently under review by the Ministry of Finance, and the final amount will be approved at a later stage. These expenses are not included in the approved republican budget for 2026; funding is expected to be allocated from the government reserve. Approximately 75% of the total sum is projected to be spent on remuneration for members of precinct election commissions involved in organizing and conducting the vote. Another CEC representative, Azamat Aimanakumov, stated that 12,416,759 citizens will be eligible to participate in the referendum. A total of 10,413 polling stations will be opened. Of these, 9,779 will be located at voters’ places of registration, while 634 will operate at temporary places of residence, including 82 polling stations abroad in 64 countries. Polling station commissions are scheduled to receive voter lists on February 22. Citizens will be notified of the time and place of voting between February 27 and March 4. Ballots are to be delivered to polling stations between March 12 and 14. March 14 has been designated a day of silence, during which campaigning is prohibited. Voting is scheduled for March 15, 2026. CEC Deputy Chairman Mukhtar Erman said that invitations to observe the referendum have been sent to relevant organizations in more than 30 countries, including European and American states, leading Asian countries, and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Separate invitations to international organizations will be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Accreditation of foreign observers will close on March 9. The draft of the new Constitution has been published on the website of the Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan. Under Article 94 of the draft, if approved in the referendum, the new Basic Law will enter into force on July 1, 2026, and the current Constitution will cease to have effect on the same date. The Times of Central Asia previously reported that work on the draft Constitution was being conducted on an accelerated timetable, after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced a package of political reforms, including a proposal to transition to a unicameral parliament.

Constitution

Opinion: Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Referendum – Strategic Reset or Institutional Consolidation?

Kazakhstan will hold a nationwide referendum on March 15 to adopt an entirely new constitution – an initiative President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev describes as a decisive break from the country’s super-presidential legacy. The draft, published on February 12 after deliberations by a Constitutional Commission, proposes far-reaching institutional reforms. Among the most notable changes are the replacement of the bicameral parliament with a unicameral body known as the Kurultai; the reinstatement of a vice presidency; and the constitutionalization of commitments to digital transformation, economic modernization, and strengthened sovereignty. The government presents the reform as a necessary modernization of the state in response to global turbulence. Yet the scope and timing of the proposal indicate that the referendum is as much about strategic recalibration as it is about institutional redesign. The Accelerated Timeline The speed of the process has drawn considerable attention. In September 2025, Tokayev advised against rushing constitutional reform and suggested that 2027 would allow sufficient time for public consultation. However, by February 2026, the referendum had been scheduled for mid-March. This abrupt shift suggests a deliberate political calculation rather than simple administrative urgency. One factor under discussion is the legal effect of adopting a wholly new constitution. While reforms in 2022 limited presidents to a single seven-year term, the introduction of a new constitutional order could create ambiguity regarding the continuity of those limits. Even if not explicitly intended as a reset mechanism, such a transformation inevitably introduces flexibility into questions of tenure and succession. Geopolitical pressures also help explain the acceleration. Tokayev has pointed to profound changes in global trade, security alignments, and technological competition. In a world increasingly shaped by sanctions regimes and geoeconomic fragmentation, Kazakhstan seeks to project institutional coherence and responsiveness. Constitutional reform, in this sense, becomes a signal of adaptive capacity. At the same time, the draft completes the political transition that began after the unrest of January 2022. Although earlier amendments removed former President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s constitutional privileges, the 1995 framework remained largely intact. The new proposal replaces that structure altogether, extinguishing residual legal ties to the Nazarbayev era and consolidating a distinct political phase under Tokayev’s leadership. Sovereignty as Constitutional Doctrine A defining feature of the draft is the elevation of sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unitary nature of the state to foundational, effectively immutable principles. This language carries clear geopolitical resonance, particularly in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While Kazakhstan continues to pursue a multi-vector foreign policy, the constitutional entrenchment of territorial integrity reinforces the state’s insistence on inviolable borders. The draft also expands restrictions on foreign financing of political parties and introduces stricter transparency rules for foreign-funded non-governmental organizations. These provisions reflect a doctrine of symmetrical distance: limiting political influence from any external actor, whether Russia, Western governments, or other international stakeholders. The emphasis is not ideological alignment but institutional insulation. Language and Identity: Managed Ambiguity The most domestically sensitive amendment concerns the status of Russian. The draft alters the phrasing from Russian being used “on an equal...

Politics

Amid Questions, Tajikistan’s Presidency Says Rahmon Has Upcoming Meetings

President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan has several meetings in the coming days, his office said this week, following reports that the leader had not been seen in public this month. Rahmon, 73, will meet Zou Jiayi, head of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Yermek Kosherbayev, who will visit Tajikistan, the presidential office said on Wednesday. Zou took up her job as president of the Beijing-based bank last month. Kosherbayev, who assumed his position in September, was scheduled to visit Kyrgyzstan on Thursday and Friday, media in Kyrgyzstan reported. “Several other events are also planned with the participation of the Leader of the Nation, His Excellency Emomali Rahmon, which we will report on in more detail,” the Tajikistan’s presidential office said. Rahmon’s Telegram channel showed video of him presiding over a meeting with law enforcement officials on January 28. But reports that he had not been seen in public since then stirred online speculation about his whereabouts and health. Similar unverified reports about the president have occasionally circulated in the past, in a country where the government tightly controls the flow of information. Rahmon has been president of Tajikistan since 1994. His son Rustam Emomali is chairman of the National Assembly and would take over as interim president if his father is unable to serve.

Constitution

Six Months to Rewrite the State: Kazakhstan Accelerates Its Constitutional Reset

Speaking on September 8, 2025, in his Address to the People of Kazakhstan in Parliament, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined plans for new political reforms. At the time, nothing in his remarks suggested either the scale of the changes his initiative would entail or the speed with which they would be implemented. Yet on March 15 of this year, Kazakh citizens will vote in a referendum on a new draft Constitution, developed at high speed over roughly six months, including a period of state-organized public consultations and expert review. According to materials published on the Constitutional Court’s page on the state portal, where the final version of the draft Basic Law was published, the starting point for constitutional reform was Tokayev’s proposal to create a unicameral Parliament. The president announced the idea on September 8, 2025. A month later, on October 8, an order was signed establishing a working group on parliamentary reform. Over the following months, the group reviewed more than 2,000 proposals from citizens and experts. At the fifth session of the National Kurultai in January 2026, Tokayev summarized the proposals on parliamentary reform, the scope of which had already expanded beyond restructuring Parliament to revising the Constitution as a whole. On January 21, a Constitutional Commission was established, comprising 130 members, including representatives of the National Kurultai, legal experts, officials from central government agencies, media executives, chairpersons of maslikhats, members of regional public councils, and academics. The first draft of the Basic Law was published on January 31. On February 11, a “referendum” version of the draft was presented to the president, incorporating comments received, including his own. Tokayev had outlined his remarks the previous day during an expanded government meeting. The question to be put to voters in March is: “Do you accept the new Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the draft of which was published in the mass media on February 12, 2026?” What is particularly notable is that on September 8, the president had cautioned against haste, calling parliamentary reform a “very serious issue” and stating that rushing it would be inappropriate. “This reform must be the subject of detailed discussion in civil society, among experts, and, of course, in the current Parliament… I believe that, given the extraordinary nature of the reform, the discussion will take at least a year, after which a nationwide referendum could be held in 2027, and then the necessary amendments could be made to the Constitution,” Tokayev said at the time. A little over five months later, however, the country is preparing for changes that extend beyond the initial proposal to abolish the upper house. At a government meeting, Tokayev emphasized that “no one is setting the task of negating the significance of the current Constitution, which has played a huge role in all of our country's achievements over the past 30 years. “Nevertheless, it should be noted that it was adopted when our country was just getting on its feet and bears the imprint of the first...