Paul Goble
Staunton, May 8 – Kazakhstan soon will again have a vice president, a position which it dispensed with in 1996 but which is mandated by recent constitutional changes and is now being defined more precisely by a bill that that country’s parliament has already passed its first reading (eurasiatoday.ru/v-kazahstane-vnov-poyavitsya-dolzhnost-vitse-prezidenta-podrobnosti/).
Like the Russian Federation which dispensed with a vice presidency after the October 1993 clash between him and Boris Yeltsin, Kazakhstan first introduced that position to make transitions easier and divide power but then eliminated it to avoid the creation of any alternative power to the president.
Because the new position in Kazakhstan will be filled directly by that country’s president, the government of that Central Asian country hopes to avoid the basis of any such clashes in the future; but if remains unclear whether the position can fill a real political niche or will remain vestigial except in the case of the death or incapacity of the president.
Some in Kazakhstan think that this new post will transform Kazakh politics, but others are less certain. What is beyond question is that it will be closely watched not only there but in other post-Soviet states that currently lack vice presidencies and may bring them back or introduce them if the Kazakhstan revival works in a positive way.
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