ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on July 11 signed a law that bars people without previous government experience from running for the country’s president.
According to the law, only Kazakh citizens with at least five years of experience at official posts can register as presidential candidates, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
Additionally, under the constitution, presidential candidates must be at least 40-years-old, born in Kazakhstan, have at least 15 years of residence in the country, and speak fluent Kazakh.
The presidential term is five years long and one person may only serve two consecutive terms.
However, Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since 1989, can be elected an unlimited number of times in accordance with the special Law on the First President.
Kazakhstan’s last presidential election was held in April 2015, and Nazarbayev, 77, won his fifth term with 97.7 percent of vote.
None of the elections held in Kazakhstan have been considered free or fair by the West.
Also on July 11, President Nazarbayev signed into law a controversial bill that would enable the authorities to annul the citizenship of people convicted of certain crimes related to terrorism and state security.
The measure was approved by both chambers of Kazakhstan’s parliament in May and June.
Under the new law, Kazakhs could be stripped of their citizenship if they are convicted of organizing or joining terrorist groups, posing a threat to the country’s “vitally important interests,” or plotting to kill the president.
Critics say the legislation might be used against many opposition politicians, some of whom have been living in self-imposed exile abroad, as the definition of “vitally important interests of Kazakhstan” is vague.
