NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh Federation of Trade Unions (KFTU) nominated April 24 Chairman of the Territorial Association of the West Kazakhstan Region’s Trade Unions Amangeldy Taspikhov as its candidate for Kazakhstan’s June 9 presidential election, reported its official website.
Amangeldy Taspikhov. Photo credit: fprk.kz.
The KFTU Executive Committee put forward Taspikhov and KFTU Deputy Chairman Mukhtar Tinikeyev as potential nominees for the KFTU General Council’s consideration. Tinikeyev removed himself from consideration during an April 24 meeting, during which Taspikhov was determined the KFTU nominee for presidency.
“I thank all my colleagues who nominated me as the KFTU candidate for Kazakhstan’s upcoming election, which are two million miners, doctors, teachers and those who protect our peace,” Tinikeyev wrote on Twitter (@tinikiyev). “I recused myself because my proficiency in the state language, which I am diligently working on, is not sufficient for this important position.”
Presidential candidates must speak Kazakh and be free of 107 mental and physical ailments, according to regulations approved April 19 by the Kazakh Ministry of Healthcare and Central Election Commission. Taspikhov will write a two-page essay, read a text and make a 15-minute speech in Kazakh and be examined by a physician and psychiatrist to meet these requirements.
“A presidential candidate must have an impeccable reputation and a colossal set of skills and experience, all of which Amangeldy exemplifies,” said KFTU Chairman Bakytzhan Abdraimov at the meeting.
Born in the West Kazakhstan Region, 59-year-old Taspikhov is a graduate of the Vladimir Lenin Kazakh Polytechnic Institute and previously served as Kazakh Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Standardisation, Metrology and Certification Committee Chairman, Ministry of Industry and New Technologies’ Industry Committee Chairman, West Kazakhstan Region Maslikhat (Assembly) Deputy, Senate Deputy, Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament) Deputy, Oral’s Zhalyevsky Village Akim (Mayor), KazTransGazAimak Industrial Branch Director and Oral Oil and Gas Industrial Branch Director.
Photo credit: fprk.kz.
The KFTU is an organisation that aims to coordinate the actions of Kazakhstan’s trade union members, which are more than two million people, in representing and protecting their labour rights and interests. “Stable enterprise, stable society, stable country,” KFTU’s slogan reads.
“We position ourselves as partners in realising the tasks set by Elbasy (Leader of the Nation, the constitutional title accorded to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev). We will concern ourselves with socioeconomic and labour issues,” said KFTU Deputy Chairman Yegor Kapel.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced early presidential elections April 9 in a televised address to the nation. The former Senate Speaker assumed the office of the President March 20 per the Kazakh Constitution following Nazarbayev’s resignation March 19 from the office he had held for nearly 30 years.
Kazakh ruling Nur Otan party congress recently nominated Tokayev, 65, the Uly Dala Qyrandary public association nominated Qazanat Editor-in-Chief and Kazakh Federation of National Equestrian Sports President Sadybek Tugel, 64, and Ak Zhol nominated Mazhilis Deputy Daniya Yespayeva, 58, as their candidates for the June 9 election.
The nomination of candidates will continue until April 28. Several more political parties are expected to hold congress to nominate their candidates.
