The chairwoman of Kazakhstan’s Central Commission on Referendums (ORK), Sabila Mustafina, said on September 3 that 15.5 billion tenges (more than $32 million) has been requested for a nationwide referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan next month, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
The announcement came a day after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the referendum and signed a decree setting October 6 as the date of the vote.
According to Mustafina, 71 percent of the requested sum would cover compensation for the work of more than 70,000 ORK members, while 29 percent would be used for communication activities, bulletins, and advertisements.
“The government will decide on the allocation of the mentioned sum for the referendum, after our estimations are approved by the Finance Ministry, the National Economy Ministry, and the Justice Ministry,” Mustafina said.
Mustafina’s deputy Konstantin Petrov said more than 12 million Kazakh citizens are eligible to vote at more than 10,000 voting sites across the country and 78 stations will be set up in different countries for Kazakh citizens residing abroad.
Only one question will be asked in the referendum: “Do you agree that Kazakhstan needs to construct a nuclear power station?”
Many in Kazakhstan expect that the answer will be “yes,” considering the country’s tightly controlled political environment.
Nuclear-power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991.
