Kazakhstan to hold snap election

Kazakhstan to hold snap election

Nursultan Nazarbayev calls for early presidential election after rejecting plan to hold a controversial referendum   US State Department welcomed the president's decision, calling it "the right decision" [GALLO/GETTY] Kazakhstan's president has called for a snap presidential election on April 3. Friday's presidential decree will end Nursultan Nazarbayev's current term in office about 20 months before it was due to end. Earlier, Nazarbayev rejected a plan to hold a referendum which was designed to allow him to rule unopposed for another decade. Nazarbayev, 70, has ruled Kazakhstan for two decades and is almost certain to win the snap election he called. Analysts say the opposition, which was caught off guard by the announcement, would simply not have enough time to prepare for the polls. The United States, which warned in December that skipping elections through a referendum would be a "setback for democracy", promptly hailed Nazarbayev's decision to hold an early election. The OSCE, Europe's main security and rights body, welcomed Nazarbayev's decision to hold a snap election, saying that Kazakhstan had promised to hold "democratic elections at reasonable intervals" at a recent OSCE summit in Astana. But critics say that Nazarbayev's election call is largely designed to pacify the West.