Awwal 04, 1432 H / April 08, 2011, SPA -- Veteran Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, sworn in for the fourth time on Friday, has retained his prime minister to push through ambitious plans to expand the largest economy in Central Asia, according to Reuters. The docile parliament unanimously supported Nazarbayev's nomination of Prime Minister Karim Masimov, who was re-appointed hours after the entire cabinet resigned in a formality to accompany the president's lavish inauguration ceremony. By law, Masimov has 10 days to present Nazarbayev with his nominations for ministerial posts in a new government. Ministers will meanwhile keep their jobs in an acting capacity. Nazarbayev, 70, has run Kazakhstan since Soviet days, ensuring stability appreciated by both Russia and the West as well as overseeing market reforms and $122 billion in foreign investment, mainly in the country's abundant oil and metals. The former steelworker was re-elected by a landslide on Sunday in an election in which European monitors found "serious irregularities". He has sweeping powers and tolerates little dissent in his vast, predominantly Muslim nation of 16.4 million people. Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan had become a modern and powerful state in his two decades of leadership and would join the world's 50 most competitive economies by the end of this decade. "I'm overwhelmingly proud of the fact that you have trusted me to participate in the big tasks required to grow Kazakhstan, our country," Masimov said in an address to the president. He also referred to himself as Nazarbayev's assistant and student. NO FAIR ELECTIONS Kazakhstan boasts by far the highest living standards among the volatile former Soviet republics of Central Asia, a region bordering Afghanistan that faces security threats such as ethnic violence, religious radicalism and drug trafficking. But the country, independent since 1991, has never held an election judged free or fair by international monitors. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which Kazakhstan chaired in 2010, said Sunday's vote had been marred by irregularities and urged the country to put in place democratic reforms before parliamentary elections in 2012. Masimov told Reuters in an interview last week he believed Kazakhstan needed an opposition presence in a parliament all of whose members are from the ruling Nur Otan party. Changes to electoral law will permit the second-placed party in next year's parliamentary vote to have seats in parliament even if it falls short of the 7 percent threshold. Nazarbayev, still holding an iron grip on his resource-rich nation, also promised steps to increase the powers of parliament and responsibilities of the government, to improve the electoral process and delegate more power to the regions. "The tempo of our reforms is much faster than in any other advanced state where democracy has been developing for centuries," he said, after kissing the national flag during his swearing-in ceremony. Thousands lined the streets of Astana, the futuristic capital city on the steppe, as a smiling Nazarbayev strode into the Palace of Independence on a red carpet to take the presidential oath. "We will continue working on further democratisation of our society," he said in a speech that outlined economic achievements since independence. "We will develop a network of responsible and free mass media," he added, without elaborating.
