By empty (6/11/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
President Nursultan Nazarbayev dismissed Kazakhstan\'s government after Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov tendered his resignation earlier on Wednesday, pleading an allegedly rigged confidence vote in parliament. The government rejected changes to a draft Land Code made by the lower house in April. Following that, Tasmagambetov, after consulting the Constitutional Council, proposed that parliament take a vote of confidence in the government.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev dismissed Kazakhstan\'s government after Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov tendered his resignation earlier on Wednesday, pleading an allegedly rigged confidence vote in parliament. The government rejected changes to a draft Land Code made by the lower house in April. Following that, Tasmagambetov, after consulting the Constitutional Council, proposed that parliament take a vote of confidence in the government. The government survived the vote, taken at a joint session of both houses of the legislature on May 19. But Tasmagambetov claimed that the vote had been rigged. \"As head of government, I disagree in principle with the extremely gross violations of the voting procedure,\" he said. He said no upper house member had been on the vote-counting commission and that it was composed solely of lower house members, which \"suggests the conclusion that the results of the voting in the [lower house] were falsified.\" In the wake of the vote, the lower house changes to the draft code were thrown out and the government\'s version was submitted for presidential endorsement. The Constitutional Council on June 10, in response to a question from Nazarbayev, declared the version to be in line with the constitution, but the president still has not signed it. Tasmagambetov, 46, was confirmed by parliament as prime minister on January 28, 2002. In the previous governments of Prime Ministers Akezhan Kazhegeldin and Kasymzhomart Tokayev, he was deputy prime minister and was in charge of social policy. He has broad governmental experience, having worked in central government and headed the administration of the oil-rich region of Atyrau. (Interfax)