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Early presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 3 April 2011, having been originally scheduled for 2012.〔(Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev calls early election ) BBC News, 4 February 2011〕 The elections were called after a plan for holding a referendum to increase president term limits to 2020 was rejected by the Constitutional Council.〔(Kazakh Constitutional Council Rejects Referendum To Extend Nazarbaev's Rule ) Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 31 January 2011〕 Nazarbayev was re-elected for a third term with 95% of the votes and 90% turnout, against three nominal candidates.〔(Washington Post )〕 The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has complained about a lack of transparency and competition in the vote. Kazakhstan was reported at the 132nd place over 167 on ''The Economists Democracy Index for 2010, as an authoritarian regime. ==Background== A referendum on extending presidential term limits was proposed to be held around March 2011.〔(Kazakh President Nazarbayev may stay in office until 2020: senior official ) Xinhua, 24 December 2010〕 President Nursultan Nazarbayev's term was due to expire in 2012 and the referendum would have bypassed the next two scheduled elections.〔(Kazakhstan parliament votes to scrap presidential poll ) BBC News, 29 December 2010〕 A Kazakh official stated that the move would "help save our efforts and resources since everyone knows the outcome of the elections beforehand."〔 It would have been the second referendum on extending Nazarbayev's term in office, the first in 1995 having extended his term until 2000,〔(Kazakh election body approves referendum on extending Nazarbayev's term until 2020 ) Ria Novosti, 27 December 2010〕 whilst in 2007 parliament amended the electoral law to allow candidates to run without term limits.〔 Although Nazarbayev rejected the proposal, it would still have gone ahead if 80% of the members of the parliament (100% controlled by his party) voted for it, or if a public petition obtained at least 200,000 signatures. Media reports suggested that a petition for the referendum had already been signed by 2,600,000 people.〔(Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev rejects plan to scrap elections ) BBC News, 7 January 2011〕 On 31 January the Constitutional Council rejected the referendum proposal for a Constitutional amendment aimed at extending Nazarbayev's term till 2020,〔http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakh_constitutional_council_rejects_referendum_to_extend_nazarbaev_rule/2292361.html〕 on the ground that the amendment did not specify for how long and how many times the Presidential term could be extended. The Court therefore referred the matter to the President himself, as required by the Constitution of Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev agreed on putting aside the Constitutional referendum and immediately called for an early presidential election. According to analysts, Nazarbayev may have stepped back from the plan of term extension due to negative reactions by both USA, EU and OSCE, and in order to buy five years time to settle succession issues.〔(Library of the Congress ) report by Peter Roudik〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kazakhstani presidential election, 2011」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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