During his speech, Tokayev announced key recommendations from the working group, including a new name for the parliament – "Kurultai." The president noted that this name has deep historical roots and is familiar to the people of Kazakhstan.
According to him, the number of mandates in the new parliament should be 145, with a term of office of 5 years. Deputies will be elected through a proportional system, while the regional maslikhats will retain a majoritarian system.
In the new structure of the parliament, in the president's opinion, there could be three chairpersons and no more than eight committees.
Tokayev also proposed to abolish the presidential quota and the quota of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, while maintaining quotas for women, youth, and people with disabilities.
Furthermore, he suggested empowering the unicameral parliament with new powers in the area of personnel appointments. "According to the current Constitution, the powers to form the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Audit Chamber, and the Central Election Commission are distributed among the Mazhilis, the Senate, and the President. Now it is proposed that the appointment of all members of these key state structures be carried out only with the consent of the Parliament. It is also proposed to empower the deputies of the highest representative body of the country with the authority to elect all judges of the Supreme Court upon the president's nomination," Tokayev clarified.
Earlier, in his Address to the People of Kazakhstan, Tokayev also expressed the idea of creating a unicameral parliament in the near future and proposed to put this issue to a referendum. A working group was formed to develop proposals for the reform, led by State Advisor Erlan Karin.
