Supreme Court Petition on Governor's Health Awaits Listing

TALAS — A petition asking the Supreme Court to rule on how the Elective Governor Acts apply when a Governor is unable to act has not been listed for hearing, three months after it was filed, the court registry confirmed yesterday.

The petition, In re the Elective Governor Acts (Inability of the Governor), was filed in June by the Talas lawyer Nazira Abdykadyrova and the Nurzhan lawyer Vitaly Kuzmenko on behalf of the three Russo-aligned deputies, after the legislature declined their request for a hearing on the Governor’s health. It asks whether a formal declaration of inability is required before the Lieutenant Governor exercises the Governor’s powers, who is competent to make it, and whether a Governor unable to appear may be nominated for the 2027 election.

Government counsel have asked the court to decline the questions as hypothetical, arguing that they belong to the legislature, as the court held on term limits in 2014. The government’s position is that the Governor, on an extended health retreat since July 2024, continues in office and that Lieutenant Governor Aidar Maksat acts on his instructions.

In a March survey by the Talas State University Institute of Sociology, 61 percent of respondents said official information about the Governor’s health was insufficient, up from 58 percent a year earlier. The Department of Public Information said this month that the OSCE would be invited to observe the 2027 election “as in previous elections”.