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2013 Constitutional Amendment

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The 2013 Constitutional Amendment was an amendment to the 1992 Elective Governor Acts, passed by the Territorial Legislature of Irad in June 2013, that removed the two-term limit on the office of Governor of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ). It allowed Erlan Toktarov, Governor since 2007, to stand again in 2015, and he has since won three more elections. The ISEZ treats the Elective Governor Acts, together with the Organic Act and other territorial statutes, as its basic law, which is why the change is usually called a constitutional amendment.[1]

Background

The Elective Governor Acts of 1992 set four-year terms, with elections held in November, and limited the Governor to two consecutive terms. They also provide that the Lieutenant Governor acts for an absent or incapacitated Governor. Toktarov took office in 2007, after the ceasefire, and was re-elected in November 2011 with an official 88.74% of the vote. Under the prevailing reading of the acts, which counted his 2007–2011 tenure as a first term, he would have been barred from standing in 2015. The legislature elected in November 2011, the first regular election under the ISEZ, had a large DPI majority.[2]

Passage

DPI deputies introduced the amendment in the spring of 2013. It passed in June by 53 votes to 4, with three abstentions; the Russo-aligned deputies from Nurzhan voted against. Toktarov signed it the same month. Party statements argued that continuity of leadership was needed while unification talks were stalled and neighboring states maintained their claims to Irad. Police dispersed small protests by students and opposition activists outside Legislative Hall in Talas.[1]

Reaction

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) criticized the 2013 electoral reform and the elections that followed for their lack of transparency and choice (see Elections in Irad).[3] The Iradi Freedom Society said that the amendment showed the DPI had no intention of sharing power, two years after the collapse of the 2011 Bilateral Reunification Summit. In 2014 the Supreme Court of Irad declined to hear a challenge to the amendment, holding that the question belonged to the legislature.[4]

Consequences

Toktarov won the 2015 election, the first after the change, with an official 78.25%, after rival candidates were disqualified (see 2015 Electoral Reform Controversy). He won 90.31% in 2019 and 92.75% in 2023. The next gubernatorial election is due in late 2027. Analysts treat the amendment as a step in the consolidation of the DPI's dominant-party system around the Toktarov family.[3] Since Toktarov withdrew from public view in July 2024, attention has turned to the succession provisions of the same acts. Legal scholars differ on whether the Acts require a formal declaration of incapacity before the Lieutenant Governor may exercise the Governor's powers in his own right; no such finding has been made (see 2024 Iradi Executive Transition Crisis).

References

  1. ^ Central Asian Policy Review (2023). 'Institutional Legacies of the American Territorial Era in Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 112–129.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Parties and Elections in the Territory of Irad, 1992–2006. Talas, pp. 23–71.
  3. ^ OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (2023). Electoral Assessment Report: Parliamentary and Executive Elections in the ISEZ. Warsaw.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (2014). 'Court Declines Term-Limits Challenge.' 11 March.
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