ASTANA. Jan 31 (Interfax) - The Constitutional Council (CC) of Kazakhstan has ruled that the bill passed by the country's parliament on "Changes and amendments to the Constituion" allowing the extension of the presidential powers at a referendum and attributing the status of the leader of the nation (yel basy) to the republic's first president contravenes the country's Fundamental Law.
The CC decision was announced by its chairman Igor Rogov in Astana on Monday.
The constitutional amendments were passed by the parliament on January 14. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev filed a submission with the CC asking it to check whether these amendments were constitutional.
The Kazakh parliament earlier proposed to the president that the matter be put to a nationwide referendum.
Nazarbayev issued a decree declining the proposal.