FILE PHOTO: Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the country's Deputy Prime Minister, attends celebrations to mark Kazakhstan People's Unity Day in Almaty, Kazakhstan, May 1, 2016. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev relieved Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest daughter of the former president, of her seat in the Senate, according to the presidential website.
In her post of speaker of the Senate, which is the upper chamber of parliament, Nazarbayeva was second in line to become president in case of the incumbent’s incapacity, resignation or sudden death.
Tokayev himself replaced ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev as speaker of the Senate when he suddenly resigned in March 2019 after three decades ruling the central Asian nation. Tokayev has pledged to continue Nazarbayev’s policies, reappointed Dariga Nazarbayeva as deputy of the Senate five months later, and she was elected speaker soon after.
According to the Kazakh constitution, the president directly appoints 15 members of the Senate, while 34 others are elected by the country’s regions.
