According to TASS , Kazakhstan President Qasim Jomart Tokayev signed the corresponding constitutional amendment on September 17, and the country's first Nur Sultan was renamed Astana .
The city was built in 1830 and was a settlement of the Cossacks. Its first name was Akmolinsk . In 1961, it was renamed Celinograd and Akmora in 1992. In December 1997, President Nur Sultan Nazarbayev moved the capital from Almaty to Akmora, and in the spring of 1998, it was renamed Astana ( Kazakh means the capital), and in March 2019, the then President Tokayev changed it to Nur Sultan to commemorate the country's first president, Nur Sultan Nazarbayev. Now, it has been changed back to the name Astana. Because in early September, some Kazakhstan parliamentarians proposed to return the name Astana to the capital, according to parliamentarians, it is wrong to name a city after him in his life. In addition, delegates believed that the return of the original name was in line with people's expectations and they never accepted the city's name change.
In addition to the capital's name change, another point that brings attention to the constitutional amendment signed by Tokayev is that the president can only be elected once, with a term of seven years. The current term of office is five years, but he can be re-elected. “Seven years is a sufficient time limit for implementing any ambitious plan. On the other hand, limiting the presidency to one term will ensure that the head of state is focused on the strategic task of addressing national development to the greatest extent. Life will not stagnate, and the dynamics of global processes and social development are accelerating every day,” Tokayev stressed.
has five-year term with seven-year term, re-election and ban on re-election, in what order will this happen, spark controversy in the Kazakh media, some believe that Tokayev can be re-election for five years and then again for president for seven-year term. The country's political scientist Islam Kulayev denied this view: "The current campaign will be held in a new way. That is, the pre-election parliament will introduce Tokayev's proposal into legislation, which will now allow him to run for re-election for five years."
Russia has been paying attention to the political changes in Kazakhstan. Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Kazakhstan is Russia's great partner, and it is not too much to estimate the importance of dialogue and alliance between the two countries. Russia hopes that the partnership will develop further and that Kazakhstan will become a confident and stable country.
