Weighing the option to prolong President Nursultan Nazarbayev's term to 2020 by referendum, Kazakhstan's governing elite has engaged in an unprecedented open debate.
The United States has again pressed Kazakhstan over a bid to dispense with presidential elections for the next decade – but are its words falling on deaf ears?
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday said he was ready to work for as long as required as his country is expected to hold a referendum on whether to extend his term until 2020.
Egyptian activists have been circulating a kind of primer to Friday's planned protest. We were sent the plan by two separate sources and have decided to publish excerpts here, with translations into English. Over Twitter, we connected with a translator, who translated the document with exceptional speed.
Journalist who led demo against referendum allowing president to avoid elections says even small-scale protest has symbolic value.
You might imagine that Astana would want to keep off the world stage amid the international outcry over an ongoing bid to extend the rule of Kazakhstan's Leader of the Nation.
* President backs law to allow new parties
