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Kazakh president urged to stay until 2020

23 December 2010 15:48 (UTC +04:00)

Astana - APA. Public figures in the Central Asian country Kazakhstan want to extend the incumbent presidentâ€™s term in office to save the election budget.
If the initiative is approved at the legislative level, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 70, may rule the country through to 2020. He has been Kazakhstanâ€™s leader for two decades, and was last reelected in 2005. He was expected to seek the presidency again in 2012.

Kazakhstanâ€™s parliament extended Nazarbayevâ€™s term in office in 2007, and now he may run for the top post as many times as he wants. Starting in 2012, the presidential seven-year term will be limited to only five years.

However, public representatives say they want to save election money and ask Nazarbayev to rule until December 6, 2020. They claim everyone understands that the current leader will win any election with overwhelming support.

Participants of a forum in Ust-Kamenogorsk, eastern Kazakhstan, on Thursday announced that a new initiative group will prepare a referendum. Nazarbayevâ€™s presidential powers were already extended after a referendum in 1995.