Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court has ruled that after the country’s new constitution comes into force, term limits for officials who held office under the former constitution will be reset. The ruling effectively allows the 73-year-old incumbent President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to run for president again.
Tokayev took office in 2019 after the abdication of his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev. He won an election later that year, then secured a new term in 2022 after Kazakhstan amended its constitution.
The latest decision was set out in a July 7 ruling by Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court, which was considering Tokayev’s own request for an official interpretation of the new constitutional provisions.
Kazakhstan previously limited presidents to a single seven-year term with no right to reelection. The new constitution kept that rule, but the court said presidential terms served under the 1995 constitution do not count toward the limit.
“For the purposes of applying the restrictions established by the constitutional norms in question, the election or appointment of such persons to the relevant posts after the 2026 Constitution enters into force shall be regarded as the first election or appointment,” the court determined.
