OREANDA-NEWS. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said that he is retiring. The head of state announced the corresponding decision addressing the people on republican TV channels. According to Nazarbayev, the decision was not easy for him.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan announced he is going to leave the post of the head of state. "I made a decision to cease my powers as president", Nazarbayev said, addressing to the people of Kazakhstan on the republican TV channels. "This year it is going to be 30 years since I’ve been at the highest post. People gave me the opportunity to be the first president of independent Kazakhstan," he said.

From now onwards Nursultan Nazarbayev who was the President of Kazakhstan since 1990, will head the Security Council of Kazakhstan. Head of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Speaker Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev will be fulfilling the duties of the head of state.

"In accordance with the law, in case of the termination of the powers of the president, his duties are performed by the speaker of the senate. Then presidential election will take place", Nursultan Nazrbayev stated.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, who will turn 79 this year, is the first and only president of Kazakhstan. Since 1991, when the republic gained sovereignty, he’s been winning presidential election for several times, for the last time (in early elections) in April 2015, gaining 97.75% of the vote. In 2007, the parliament granted him, as the first president, the right to run for the highest state post an unlimited number of times. Nazarbayev’s current presidential term expires in April 2020.