Kazakstan Prepares for OSCE visit
Kazakstan Prepares for OSCE visit
The president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Goran Lennmarker, will pay his first visit to Kazakstan on April 27-30 to meet both houses of parliament, the Central Electoral Committee and the foreign ministry.Discussions will focus on Kazakstan’s bid to chair the OSCE in 2009 and the 17th OSCE Parliamentary Assembly which will be held in Astana next year. NBCentralAsia analysts say Lennmarker’s visit has been perfectly timed given parliament’s recent noises about constitutional reform and liberalising media legislation.
Constitutional reforms to extend the powers of parliament and elected regional government, strengthen the role of political parties, and give more powers to the judiciary were initially planned for 2009-2011, but on April 23, parliamentarians said the process would be accelerated to support Kazakstan’s OSCE bid, so that constitutional amendments may be submitted before the end of the year.
Constitutional reforms to extend the powers of parliament and elected regional government, strengthen the role of political parties, and give more powers to the judiciary were initially planned for 2009-2011, but on April 23, parliamentarians said the process would be accelerated to support Kazakstan’s OSCE bid, so that constitutional amendments may be submitted before the end of the year.
