Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was elected today as head of the ruling party, Nur Otan, taking over from former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who appears to have been sidelined after the violent protests that rocked the country in the beginning. of January and the rumors of an internal struggle at the top of power.
The Interfax agency reports.
The presidential office said on Twitter that Tokayev was unanimously elected. In 2019 Nazarbayev, who is now 81, had chosen him as his successor after leading the country for nearly 30 years, but he had kept the party leader and the presidency of the National Security Council in place. He had already been relieved of this office in the first days of the violence that had upset the country, especially the former capital Almaty, causing at least 225 deaths.
Tokayev has also removed several officials from the ex-president's loyal security apparatuses from their posts.
Tokayev later openly criticized Nazarbayev for creating a system of power that fostered economic inequalities.
Finally, Nazarbayev himself, for the first time since the outbreak of the riots, made himself alive with a video in which he called himself only "a pensioner" and professed fidelity to his successor.
(HANDLE).