President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev signed amendments to the Constitution, according to which the capital of the Republic of Nur-Sultan returns to its former name Astana, and a one-seven-year term is established for the president without the right to re-election. Previously, the president was elected for five years and a maximum of two terms.
On September 2, members of the deputy group "Zhana Kazakhstan" made a proposal to return the former name to the capital. Tokayev supported them, but stressed that other objects named after the first president of the republic would not be renamed. The day before, he announced the holding of early presidential elections in the fall of 2022.
It is noteworthy that Tokayev was also the initiator of the renaming of Astana to Nur-Sultan. He made this proposal on March 20, 2019, during his inaugural address after taking the presidential oath. The decree on renaming was signed three days later, on March 23.
Earlier, the secretary of the capital's maslikhat, Yerlan Kanalimov , said that the renaming is an apology to the locals, who in 2019 opposed changing the name of the capital.