A change of government in Kazakhstan took place last week. The reshuffling of the Cabinet in a faraway Central Asian country is certainly no big deal for the global political agenda in light of all the latest developments in the world, particularly amid what is going on in Ukraine and the Middle East. Especially since the new Kazakh government is virtually identical to the last one, with just a new premier and several new ministers.

But in Kazakhstan itself, this Cabinet change has been made by official propaganda to look like a major political development of a true democratic nature. Well, it is true that all the democratic requirements outlined in the Constitution of the country were formally and strictly met. Olzhas Bektenov, as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister, was nominated by the Amanat party which holds the majority in the Kazakh parliament. President Tokayev then, according to media reports, following Article 44 of the Constitution, held consultations on Olzhas Bektenov’s candidacy with the leaders of party factions.

Yet not all of the latter supported his nomination to serve as the next Kazakh PM during the voting in the Parliament. Parliamentarians with the Amanat party, along with those from the Aq Jol party, the Auyl party, and the Respublica party, voted for him. Their colleagues in the parliament from the People’s Party and the National Social Democratic Party abstained from voting on Olzhas Bektenov’s candidacy for the post. These developments give Kazakhstan’s pro-government outlets reason to draw the following conclusion: Olzhas Bektenov, as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister, had been nominated by the Amanat party representatives, and President Tokayev and their fellow MPs [just] supported this decision. So how is this not an example of genuine democracy?!

The unbiased outside and local observers characterize the development of events in this case somewhat otherwise. Here is what AP, in a piece entitled ‘Kazakhstan’s president appoints a new prime minister to replace the one he dismissed’, says in this regard: “Tokayev named chief of staff Olzhas Bektenov, 43, to replace Alikhan Smailov as prime minister. The ruling Amanat party nominated Bektenov, who previously led the country’s anti-corruption agency, and the national parliament quickly gave its approval”. Whereas Dossym Satpayev, a well-known Kazakh political scientist, when asked by a journalist why the parliament factions of the People’s Party and the National Social Democratic Party had abstained from voting on Olzhas Bektenov’s candidacy, laughed and said, “This is an effort to shoehorn autocracy into what [real] democracy should look like”.

Here, for example, is what Amalbek Tshan, who has extensive experience as a high-ranking Kazakh official, and as a member of the country’s Parliament, told a Kazakhstani journalist when asked whether or not it is true that nowadays, elections are conducted under executive control, and election protocols turn out to be prepared [in advance] regardless of how the situation with voting would develop:........

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