Global General

Nazarbayev sworn in as president of Kazakhstan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-08 17:26

ASTANA - Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday was sworn in as Kazakh president for the fourth time, serving another five-year term in the Central Asia's largest country.

During the inauguration ceremony, which took place at the Independence Palace, located near Astana's Kazakh Yeli central square, and was broadcast live on TV, Nazarbayev, having put his right hand on a copy of the Kazakh constitution, took the oath in the Kazakh language.

Foreign ambassadors accredited in Kazakhstan also attended the ceremony.

After taking the oath, the chairman of the Central Election Commission, Kuandyk Turgankulov, presented Nazarbayev with the president's ID card.

Under Kazakhstan's law, the Kazakh cabinet should step down after the president's inauguration.

Sources familiar with the situation told Interfax that Prime Minister Karim Masimov would keep his post in the country's new government.

"The president will nominate incumbent Premier Karim Masimov, who will continue the government's work within the Customs Union and on the formation of the common economic space," one of the sources said.

Nazarbayev won 95.5 percent of the vote in Kazakhstan's presidential elections on April 3.

He has been in office since 1989 and granted the official title of "leader of the nation" by the parliament last year.

Under a 2007 constitutional amendment, there is no limit to the number of terms he can serve.