Address of the President to Nation was discussed in Canadian Parliament

Ottawa, March 17, 2022 - Kazakhstan Embassy to Canada organized an online briefing for Canadian parliamentarians to present a program of large-scale transformations as part of building New Kazakhstan within the State-of-the-Nation Address by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev «New Kazakhstan: The path of renewal and modernization».

Kazakhstan Ambassador to Canada A.Kamaldinov acquainted event participants with the 5th reforms package to modernize the country’s political system. He stressed that Kazakhstan will redistribute powers from the President to the Parliament by strengthening legislative body’s power and responsibility. It was noted that our state will move from a «super-presidential» model to a «presidential republic with a strong parliament» and a fundamentally new stable system of checks and balances will be formed.

The Kazakh diplomat highlighted that the current program of political reforms symbolizes a beginning of a new stage in Kazakhstan’s political development. The reforms are a logical continuation of transformations that have already begun, they contribute to consistent democratization and ensure the stability and effective state management. He noted that the Government will create favorable conditions for institutional and organizational development of political parties, ensuring free political competition, and the electoral system will be reformed in order to conduct fair and transparent elections. These changes include the simplification of procedures for parties registration and election campaigns, reduction of the party registration threshold by four times, from 20 to 5 thousand people. It was emphasized that when President K. Tokayev took office in 2019, this figure was 40 thousand people, and in less than three years it has decreased by eight times.

The Ambassador described in detail reforms in the Mazhilis’s (Lower Chamber) electoral system, which will be transformed into a mixed proportional-majoritarian model, where 70% of deputies will be elected according to proportional model, and
30% - according to majoritarian. He also noted that the transition to a mixed system of electing deputies of regional maslikhats (50/50) and introduction of a majoritarian system for electing members of city and district Maslikhats will increase the degree of direct participation of citizens in the formation of local legislative bodies. It will also allow candidates who are not members of political parties to take part in country’s political life.

A.Kamaldinov stressed that civil society institutions role will be strengthened in Kazakhstan, public organizations and activists will be widely involved in the preparation and implementation of reforms. All national projects and strategic documents will be open for public discussion, role of public councils will be strengthened and format of their work will be comprehensively updated.

In turn, Canadian parliamentarians expressed sincere interest in the new political program, which is a continuation of the course towards Kazakhstan’s further democratization. Members of Kazakhstan-Canada Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Group highly appreciated the large-scale reforms being carried out in our country aimed at modernizing governance institutions and increasing political competition.

The Group's Co-Chair, Canadian Senator Victor Oh, praised Kazakhstan's efforts to implement political reforms, de-bureaucratize the public sector, and create conditions for conducting transparent and fair elections and functioning of competitive and independent media.

Co-Chair of the Group - Member of Parliament of Canada Shafkat Ali noted the relevance of reforms in parliamentary electoral system and local self-government fields, aimed at increasing the accountability and transparency of local government’s activities. He also stressed the importance of recreating the Constitutional Court in our country to strictly comply with the Constitution’s provisions, introducing a ban on the death penalty and strengthening the role of the Commissioner for Human Rights by adopting a constitutional law on its powers.

The event demonstrated a significant interest of the host country’s parliamentary circles to the reforms and transformations being implemented in our country. It was held on the initiative of the Kazakhstan Embassy to Canada along with the Kazakhstan-Canada Inter-Parliamentary Group of Cooperation.