Kazakh parliament not to override pres veto on "leader of the nation"

ASTANA, June 4 (Itar-Tass) -- Kazakhstan's parliament on Friday opted
not to override the presidential veto on the bill vesting him with the
"leader of the nation" status.
At their today's emergency sessions, both chambers of the Kazakh
parliament "took into account" President Nursultan Nazarbayev's address to
the nation, parliament and the ruling People's Democratic Party Nur Otan
explaining the reasons behind his decision to reject the status.
According to one of the bill's initiators, member of the lower
parliament chamber Amzebek Zholshibekov, the president's decision is not a
veto. The president "refused to sign (the bill), it is his civic,
constitutional right, and we understand him absolutely right," he told
journalists.
The parliament will not take efforts to override the presidential
veto, since "the lawmakers have approved of the president's noble action,"
said members of the upper chamber of the Kazakh parliament Tasbai
Simambayev.
Nazarbayev, who has been in power since the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, on Thursday turned down a bill vesting him with the "leader
of the nation" status. The country's parliament passed amendments to the
law on the first president on May 13, 2010 and submitted the relevant bill
to the president.
In his address, he thanked the country's residents "for support and
the high evaluation of his work," but said the "leader of the nation
status cannot be obtained only through laws, decrees and other legal acts."
"I will ask for more powers if the country or its citizens face any
serious threat, if its territorial integrity or its national interests are
endangered," he stressed.
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