Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev set to extend tenure as Kazakh President

Current Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev cast his ballot for the presidential elections at Astana's Children's Republican Palace on Sunday. Reports indicate that Nazarbayev, who called the election early, is set to renew his tenure as leader of the country, after initially being appointed by then President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev on 24 April 1990. His first official act, if elected, will be the establishment of a commission that will work towards the implementation of five "major reforms," which are supposed to change "politics, economics and society," Nazarbayev announced while speaking to the press. The current premier called the planned reforms "a huge effort" that may require changes of the legal system and even the constitution. The two other candidates participating in the fifth presidential elections in Kazakhstan are the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan's Turgun Syzdykov and Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions Abelgazi Kussaimov.