Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Note on Transliteration
- Acronyms
- Acknowledgments
- 1 THE CONTINUITY OF CHANGE: OLD FORMULAS AND NEW INSTITUTIONS
- 2 EXPLAINING INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN IN TRANSITIONAL STATES: BEYOND STRUCTURE VERSUS AGENCY
- 3 SOURCES OF CONTINUITY: THE SOVIET LEGACY IN CENTRAL ASIA
- 4 SOURCES OF CHANGE: THE TRANSITIONAL CONTEXT IN CENTRAL ASIA
- 5 ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN KYRGYZSTAN: RISE OF THE REGIONS
- 6 ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN UZBEKISTAN: REVENGE OF THE CENTER
- 7 ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN KAZAKHSTAN: THE CENTER'S RISE AND THE REGIONS' REVENGE
- 8 INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE THROUGH CONTINUITY: SHIFTING POWER AND PROSPECTS FOR DEMOCRACY
- Appendix I Sample Interview Questions
- Appendix II Career Patterns of Regional Leaders in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia
- References
- Index
7 - ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN KAZAKHSTAN: THE CENTER'S RISE AND THE REGIONS' REVENGE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Note on Transliteration
- Acronyms
- Acknowledgments
- 1 THE CONTINUITY OF CHANGE: OLD FORMULAS AND NEW INSTITUTIONS
- 2 EXPLAINING INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN IN TRANSITIONAL STATES: BEYOND STRUCTURE VERSUS AGENCY
- 3 SOURCES OF CONTINUITY: THE SOVIET LEGACY IN CENTRAL ASIA
- 4 SOURCES OF CHANGE: THE TRANSITIONAL CONTEXT IN CENTRAL ASIA
- 5 ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN KYRGYZSTAN: RISE OF THE REGIONS
- 6 ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN UZBEKISTAN: REVENGE OF THE CENTER
- 7 ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN KAZAKHSTAN: THE CENTER'S RISE AND THE REGIONS' REVENGE
- 8 INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE THROUGH CONTINUITY: SHIFTING POWER AND PROSPECTS FOR DEMOCRACY
- Appendix I Sample Interview Questions
- Appendix II Career Patterns of Regional Leaders in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia
- References
- Index
Summary
In contrast to both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the struggle between President Nursultan Nazarbaev and Kazakhstan's Soviet-elected legislature over the timing of elections to a new parliament marked the middle rather than the beginning of intense negotiations over a new electoral system. A committee composed of presidential advisors, legal experts, and select Supreme Soviet deputies had already begun secretly drafting a new electoral law in the presidential apparat in the spring of 1993. It was only toward the end of that year, when the committee had developed a law acceptable to Nazarbaev, that he began to garner support for dissolving the Supreme Soviet and holding early elections to a new parliament. It was also only at this time that the electoral law was first openly discussed in the press and submitted to the entire Supreme Soviet for its approval.
At the opening of Kazakhstan's Supreme Soviet's 11th session in October 1993, during which the draft electoral law was scheduled for debate, both Nazarbaev and the Supreme Soviet's Chairperson insisted that neither of them supported holding early elections to a new parliament. Less than a month later, Nazarbaev publicly shifted his position. Similar to the situation that President Akaev faced in Kyrgyzstan, Nazarbaev now wanted to hold early elections while the majority of deputies insisted on serving out the last eighteen months of their terms.
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- Information
- Institutional Change and Political Continuity in Post-Soviet Central AsiaPower, Perceptions, and Pacts, pp. 213 - 252Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002