Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree approving the composition of the republic's highest consultative body - the People's Council, which is formed in accordance with the country's new constitution. The decree was published by the press service of the President of Kazakhstan.
According to the decree, 126 members will be appointed to the People's Council of Kazakhstan. The Council has the right to initiate legislation and can also propose a referendum.
The People's Council, as previously proposed by Tokayev, replaces the two consultative bodies that existed under the previous constitution - the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and the National Kurultai. The council includes public figures, university employees, representatives of ethnocultural associations of Kazakhstan, former members of the bicameral parliament, business representatives and diplomats.
In particular, the council includes Nikolai Arsyutin, a member of the Association of Russian, Slavic and Kazakh Ethnocultural Associations; former deputy of the Mazhilis (lower house of parliament) Ermurat Bapi; vice-president of the National Olympic Committee Gadzhi Gadzhiev; Gennady Zenchenko, executive director of Zenchenko & Company; Alina Kan, a member of the public foundation “Republican Ethnocultural Association of Kazakh Germans“; Rauan Kenzhekhanuli, president of the International Society of the Kazakh Language; Andrey Lavrentiev, a member of the board of directors of the Union of Mechanical Engineers of Kazakhstan and a businessman; former deputies of the Senate (upper house of parliament) Andrey Lukin and Gennady Shipovskikh; Bagdat Musin, head of “Kazakhtelecom“; and former Minister of Ecology Erlan Nisanbayev. The council also includes representatives of ethnic associations of Chechens and Ingush, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles and other peoples living in Kazakhstan.
According to the constitutional law governing this council, its meetings are convened “as necessary, but not less than once a year“. The chairman of the council must be elected at the meeting for a four-year term; no person may hold this position for more than two consecutive terms. A candidate for chairman of the council may be nominated by the chairman or by at least one-third of the council members.