Daughter of ex-premier dismissed

NUR-SULTAN: Kazakhstan’s president appointed a top aide to the senate yesterday after dismissing his powerful predecessor’s daughter in a shock move that sparked speculation of a power struggle.

An order published on President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s website said that the former deputy head of his administration, Maulen Ashimbayev, would become a senator following the dismissal of Dariga Nazarbayeva on Saturday.

Mr Ashimbayev was yesterday unanimously elected as speaker of the upper house — the position that Ms Nazarbayeva held prior to her dismissal, and which had positioned her second in line to the presidency.

Ms Nazarbayeva is the 56-year-old daughter of Kazakhstan’s first postindependence leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who retains significant formal powers despite retiring last year after three decades at the helm.

Mr Nazarbayev, 79, has not spoken publicly about his daughter’s dismissal which was announced on Saturday.

Yet, he recently called on the country to back Mr Tokayev as the oil-producing Central Asian country battles the dual shock of rock bottom energy prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Ashimbayev’s unanimous election as senate speaker was confirmed by Mr Tokayev’s press secretary in a Facebook post.

Like most parliaments in Central Asia, Kazakhstan’s bicameral legislature is widely viewed as a rubber stamp with no independence from the executive.

Many observers had viewed 66-yearold Tokayev, a former foreign minister, as a loyal seat-warmer who might make way for a member of the Nazarbayev family at a later date.

Mr Ashimbayev was in charge of Mr Tokayev’s presidential campaign which saw him easily defeat a cluster of uncompetitive candidates in a vote decried by international monitors in June.

Mr Ashimbayev was replaced yesterday as deputy head of Mr Tokayev’s administration by information minister Dauren Abayev, who served as Mr Nazarbayev’s press secretary from 2011 to 2016.

Mr Tokayev was himself senate speaker before stepping up to take the presidential helm last year.