President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev signed laws limiting presidential powers two weeks before the early elections: in particular, they prohibit the head of state from being members of political parties, and his relatives from holding political positions and managing state-owned companies. The message was published on the official website of the president.
The laws also reduce the powers of the president in relation to local executive authorities and the Supreme Judicial Council, reduce the presidential quota in parliament, and the president of Kazakhstan can now appoint the heads of regions and cities only with the approval of local deputies,
Tokayev himself said that the constitutional reform made it possible to consolidate the political transformations of the past three years. According to him, the principles of "fairness, transparency and solidarity" will now be strictly observed.
In September, Tokayev signed amendments to the constitution that would return the capital of the republic, Nur-Sultan, to its former name, Astana, and establish a one-seven-year non-reelection term for the president. Previously, the president was elected for five years and a maximum of two terms. Yerlan Kanalimov, the secretary of the capital's maslikhat , said that the renaming of the city is an apology to the locals, who opposed the name change in 2019.
Tokayev was also the initiator of renaming 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.
In the summer of 2022, a referendum on amendments to the Constitution was held in Kazakhstan. Changes in the basic law were supported by more than 77% of citizens. All references to Nazarbayev as the leader of the nation (elbasy) were removed from the text of the country's basic law.
