A top figure in Kazakhstan's dominant pro-government party said Monday that the constitution could be amended to allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev to remain in office for life.
The remarks could provoke widespread debate in the energy-rich Central Asian nation. Nazarbayev has been in power since the Soviet era and is viewed by critics as increasingly authoritarian.
Nur Otan deputy chairman Darkhan Kaletayev said popular support for Nazarbayev's leadership could necessitate a change to the constitution, leading the way to his indefinite rule.
"(We) should identify all aspects and options regarding the status of head of state," Kaletayev said. "These could include laying down the parameters of his presidency-for-life."
The remarks followed a speech posted on the president's official Web site last week in which a university professor called for constitutional amendments that would make him president for life.
Nazarbayev could potentially remain in office for life without any new changes to the constitution: In 2007, parliament approved amendments waiving term limits that would have forced him out in 2012.
A proposal to scrap elections and make Nazarbayev president for life would be unlikely to meet resistance in parliament, which is composed solely of Nur Otan party members.
"A certain section of the Kazakh political elite will regard this idea positively, because they believe that the current head of state is a guarantor of stability," said independent political analyst Dosym Satpayev.
But it would badly damage Nazarbayev's image abroad. Kazakhstan is set to take up the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Nazarbayev hopes the stint at the head of the prominent security and democracy body will bolster the nation's democratic credentials.
In neighboring Turkmenistan, a hand-picked assembly of government loyalists declared autocratic leader Saparmurat Niyazov president for life a few years before he died in 2006.
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