BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 6
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis (lower house of the Parliament) has approved a number of decree drafts on May 6, 2020, including of a decree of the issues of parliamentary opposition, Trend reports with reference to the Mazhilis.
The decrees were developed by members of Mazhilis in accordance with the order of Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev on the need to form the institution of parliamentary opposition.
During the Mazhilis hearing, the Chairman of the Mazhilis Nurlan Nigmatulin said that the legislative consolidation of the very concept of ‘parliamentary opposition’ opens a fundamentally new page in the history of Kazakhstan’s parliamentarism.
“Today, Mar. 6, in accordance with the guidelines of the country's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, another very important step has been taken in strengthening democracy of Kazakhstan. We can say that this decree laid the foundation for a very significant and necessary process for the formation of parliamentary opposition institution,” Nigmatulin said.
He added that the parliamentary opposition development will be carried out taking into account foreign countries experience. At the same time, the specifics of Kazakh practice of state and party building will be taken into account.
“In the future, both the legislation itself and the practice of its application will be improved both in the interests of citizens and society as a whole,” Nigmatulin said.
Thus, the concepts of ‘parliamentary majority’ and ‘parliamentary opposition’ are being fixed on the legislative level.
The decree also provides for a mechanism to guarantee the election of Mazhilis members from the parliamentary opposition to be chairmen of one of the permanent committees and secretaries of two committees of the Mazhilis.
In addition, the parliamentary opposition is given the right to initiate at least one parliamentary hearing in a calendar year, as well as determine the agenda of ‘government hours’ at least twice during a parliamentary session.
The decree was passed on for consideration of country's Senate (upper house of the parliament).
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