Participants of an extraordinary meeting of Kazakhstan’s ruling Amanat party (Covenant of ancestors) on Thursday voted to nominate current head of state Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the candidate for the president of Kazakhstan at early elections, a TASS correspondent reports.
Earlier, Yerlan Koshanov, the chairman of the party, proposed Tokayev's candidacy for the upcoming presidential election in late November.
"By decision of the Amanat party congress, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was unanimously nominated as the candidate for the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan," said Askhat Oralov, the executive secretary of the party.
The extraordinary meeting was convened ahead of an early presidential election slated for November 20.
People's Party
The People's Party of Kazakhstan (QHP) also proposed to nominate incumbent head of state as the presidential candidate.
"I believe that in the conditions of geopolitical breakdown, when the whole world is split into confrontational blocs, our country needs a person with extensive experience in public administration and international politics. A politician with a clear vision of the country's development. And not some dilettantes and demagogues, who have never proven themselves anywhere in their entire lives. Therefore, I make a proposal: despite the fact that under the constitution the head of state is not a member of any party, our party does not just support, but nominates the candidacy of the current president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in the early elections," said the chairman of QHP Yermukhamet Yertysbayev.
Later, the press service of the party told TASS that during the voting at the meeting, "the participants made a unanimous decision to nominate Tokayev as a candidate for the presidential election."
On April 26, Tokayev announced that he had decided to resign as chairman of the ruling party and leave it. Speaker of the Majilis (lower house of parliament) Koshanov was elected as his successor.
On October 5, Tokayev reported that it would be right for him to go to elections not from any particular organization, but from a broad coalition of socio-political forces that form the social base for the reforms conducted in the country. In his opinion, this will also make it possible to establish the principle of equidistance of the president from various parties and associations.
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Photo: Ken and Nyetta/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS