Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has abruptly announced his resignation, 29 years after taking office.
According to Al Jazeera News, , the 78-year-old in a televised address today, said he has taken the “difficult” decision to terminate his authority as president, but did not give a specific reason for the shock decision.
Nazarbayev, who was elected for a fifth-five year term in 2015, said speaker of the Central Asian country’s upper house, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will serve as the interim head of state until a new election is held.
The announcement came less than a month after Nazarbayev sacked his government, citing a lack of economic development despite the country’s vast energy resources.
Nazarbayev subsequently named 53-year-old Askar Mamin as the new prime minister.
