President Nazarbayev may stay in Office until 2020 - Senior Official

    A referendum on extending Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's term of office until 2020 may take place in March 2011, a senior official said Friday.
    Vladimir Redkokashin, head of Kazakhastan's capital Astana city council, said that a group of well-known politicians and scholars have submitted a request to the country's Central Election Commission for holding a referendum on extending the president's term to 2020.
    "I hope we will obtain the registration and prepare checklist questions for the referendum in the first week of January 2011," Redkokashin said, adding that the referendum could take place in March 2011.
    "So far, there has been no alternative to Nursultan Abishevich (Nazarbayev), the leader of the nation and the president of our country," he said.
    Redkokashin said he was also confident that "the vast majority of the Kazakh people will support the idea to hold the referendum."
    Olzhas Suleimenov, former leader of the "Nevada-Semey" (People's Anti-Nuclear Movement) and currently Kazakhstan's Ambassador to UNESCO, backed the idea of holding the referendum.
    "I think it is unnecessary for Kazakhstan to waste two years on presidential election campaign," Suleimenov said.
    "A national referendum can help save our efforts and resources since everyone knows the outcome of the elections beforehand," he added.
    Nursultan Nazarbayev, 70, was the first elected president of Kazakhstan 20 years ago. Since then, he has won all the ensuing 1991, 1999 and 2005 presidential elections.
    In 1995, his presidential term was extended by a national referendum. His current presidential term will expire in 2012.
    In 2007 the Kazakh parliament amended the law to allow Nazarbayev to run for the presidency for an unlimited number of times, Xinhua reports.