Nursultan Nazarbayev

Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940) is the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in office from 24 April 1990 until his resignation on 19 March 2019. He was named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1989 and was elected as the nation's first president following its independence from the Soviet Union. He holds the title "Leader of the Nation". In April 2015, Nazarbayev was re-elected with almost 98% of the vote, as he ran "virtually unopposed".

Nazarbayev has been accused of human rights abuses by several human rights organisations and suppressed dissent and presided over an authoritarian regime. No election held in Kazakhstan since independence has been judged to be free or fair by the West. In 2010, he announced reforms to encourage a multi-party system. In January 2017, Nazarbayev proposed constitutional reforms that would delegate powers to the Parliament of Kazakhstan.