Kazakhstan plans to revise the procedure for renaming populated places, with new decisions to be made after stronger consideration of local residents’ opinions.
Members of Parliament reviewed the draft Constitutional Law On the administrative-territorial structure at a joint sitting of the chambers in Astana on Tuesday, putting the issue of place names back onto the legislative agenda after repeated disputes between residents and local authorities.
Deputy Yerkebulan Mambetov said the bill would strengthen the role of residents in decisions on naming and renaming cities and villages, as well as in clarifying names and changing transliteration. “The project strengthens the role of residents and the consideration of public opinion in naming, renaming, clarifying, and changing the transliteration of names. Such an approach will make it possible to reflect the real values and interests of people living in a certain territory when assigning names, renaming administrative-territorial units and their constituent parts,” he said.
The draft does not abolish the existing public-opinion procedure, which has been in place for a long time. When a village is proposed for renaming, the akimat sends the issue to the maslikhat for review, a general meeting is then held to gather residents’ views, a vote follows, and the decision is taken by a majority. The onomastic commission then issues its conclusion.
That sequence matters because renaming has often become a point of friction. Disputes between residents and authorities over changing the names of settlements have repeatedly surfaced in society, and the new law is aimed at giving local opinion more weight before those conflicts harden.
The move also follows earlier remarks by the President, who said residents’ views should be taken into account when renaming streets and populated places. He said such decisions had often been made incorrectly in the past, without a unified approach and sometimes out of personal or local interests, and argued that renamings should be justified, reflect the country’s history, and be carried out carefully and without haste.
The next step is for lawmakers to continue working through the draft, with the practical effect of the change likely to be felt in future cases where local communities and authorities do not see eye to eye on a new name.
