The process of collecting signatures in support of a referendum on extending Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev's term of office until 2020 was successfully completed on Tuesday with about 4.3 million signatures gathered.
The initiative group which proposed holding the referendum instead of presidential elections scheduled for 2012 was registered by Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission December 27.
According to Kazakh law, at least 200,000 people eligible to take part in the referendum and equally representing different regions should sign a request forwarded to the country's president to hold a referendum.
It is already clear that the number of gathered signatures has dramatically surpassed the number of those required.
"The precise number of collected signatures is not exactly known yet, as the count is still continuing in the regions," Yerlan Sydykov, head of the initiative group which ran the collection process said.
Last week, official Kazakh news agencies issued a presidential decree in which Nazarbayev turned down the parliamentary initiative to amend the republic's constitution so as to extend the incumbent president's term to 2020. On Monday, Kazakh deputies said they would try to overturn Nazarbayev's veto.
The head of the Astana city council, Vladimir Redkokashin, earlier described the extension as necessary because "as of now, there is no alternative to Nursultan Abishevich [Nazarbayev], the Leader of the Nation and the president of our country."
Nazarbayev, 70, has ruled the Central Asian state for 21 years, as first secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party from 1989, and since the breakup of the Soviet Union as president of Kazakhstan.
In June, the title of "Leader of the Nation" was bestowed upon him by his country's lawmakers. The title gives him a wide range of privileges after the expiry of his presidential term.
The referendum on extending Nazarbayev's presidential term would become the second in Kazakhstan's history. In 1995, his term, due to expire that year, was extended until December 2000.
ASTANA, January 11 (RIA Novosti)
