NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has stepped down as chairman of the country's ruling party, Amanat (Ancestors' Legacy) as part of the constitutional changes he says will allow for greater political diversity.
Toqaev made the announcement on April 26 at a congress of the party, which until March 1 was known as Nur-Otan (Light of the Fatherland), which links back to his predecessor and former patron, Nursultan Nazarbaev.
Toqaev said that the ruling party's chairmanship will be transferred to Erlan Qoshanov, chairman of the parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis. The pro-government Adal (Honest) political party also announced at the congress that it will merge with Amanat.
The announcement comes less than two months after the ruling party changed its name from Nur-Otan to Amanat as Toqaev has sought to distance himself from Nazarbaev in the wake of deadly mass protests in early January that were sparked in part because of anger with the ruling party over the corruption and nepotism that stemmed from Nazarbaev's rule even after he stepped down in 2019.
The ruling party was initially called Otan (Fatherland) when it was established in 1998.
Later, as the former president's cult of personality turned into a mass phenomenon in the tightly controlled, oil-rich Central Asian state, the party, like many other organizations and state entities, changed its name to Nur-Otan, to associate it more closely with Nazarbaev.
While ruling for almost three decades, Nazarbaev installed relatives in key positions, enriching them at the expense of ordinary Kazakhs, who have failed to share in the country's vast energy wealth.
Many relatives and close associates of Nazarbaev have lost their posts in government, security agencies, and profitable energy groups since the unrest as Toqaev tries to distance himself from his predecessor.