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On Tuesday, Kazakhstan’s highest judicial body delivered a landmark ruling that paves the way for incumbent President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to run for a third seven-year term when his current term ends in 2029. The decision hinges on constitutional amendments approved by national referendum in March that entered into legal force earlier this month, which reset presidential term count rules entirely.

Under the revised constitutional framework, Tokayev’s current tenure, which began after he took power in 2019, does not count toward the new two-term limit established by the amendments. This ruling aligns Kazakhstan with a broader trend across several former Soviet states including Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where ruling leaders have modified national constitutions to expand executive authority and extend their time in office.

At 73, Tokayev brings decades of diplomatic and government experience to the role: a former Soviet official and veteran United Nations diplomat, he has governed the oil-rich Central Asian nation, home to 20 million people, since he stepped into the acting presidency in 2019 following the resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the autocrat who led Kazakhstan through its post-Soviet independence for nearly 30 years. Widely viewed as Nazarbayev’s handpicked successor, Tokayev has navigated complex geopolitical currents since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, maintaining a carefully calibrated balancing act between Moscow and Western powers amid sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia.

The constitutional overhaul that cleared the way for his potential re-election won overwhelming support in the March referendum, and has significantly consolidated Tokayev’s hold on national power. The package of changes merged Kazakhstan’s previously bicameral parliament into a single chamber, restored the dormant vice presidential post, and granted the president authority to appoint all top government officials subject only to parliamentary approval. It also established a new legislative advisory body, the People’s Council, whose members are all appointed directly by the president and granted the power to initiate new legislation and call referendums.

Tokayev has defended the constitutional amendments as a necessary adjustment for a rapidly shifting global landscape, arguing the changes will enable faster, more decisive policy-making to address evolving challenges. However, the changes come against a backdrop of limited political opposition in Kazakhstan: mainstream opposition groups hold no seats in government institutions and lack the capacity to shift widespread public opinion. Tokayev’s tenure has also been marked by controversy: in 2022, he ordered a harsh crackdown on widespread nationwide protests that became known as “Bloody January” to locals, which left 238 people dead and thousands more injured. In the wake of the unrest, Tokayev positioned himself as a pro-reform candidate and called an early presidential election later that year, which he won by a landslide.

LONDON – In a bombshell political move that upends Britain’s already volatile electoral landscape, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced Tuesday he will resign his current parliamentary seat and force a by-election, framing the contest as a direct appeal to voters to exonerate him of wrongdoing amid overlapping investigations into unreported financial donations.

Standing firm against mounting scrutiny from parliamentary regulators and opposition lawmakers, Farage, a high-profile ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, released a pre-recorded televised statement taking no questions, where he forcefully denied any misconduct. “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” he asserted.

The controversy centers on two separate donation investigations that have put Farage’s political future at risk. First, Parliament’s independent standards watchdog is examining a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based British cryptocurrency billionaire. Under UK parliamentary rules, newly elected lawmakers are required to disclose any gift valued over £300 ($400) received in the 12 months before taking office, unless the gift could not reasonably be linked to the recipient’s political work. Farage has defended the transfer, arguing it was a personal gift used to cover personal security costs, and that it was received before he won his Clacton, Essex seat in eastern England.

A second potential probe is being pushed by opposition lawmakers, who are calling for an investigation into donations from George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto and gambling entrepreneur who previously served a prison sentence in the United States for fraud. If the investigations find Farage violated parliamentary rules, the outcome could have resulted in his suspension or permanent expulsion from the House of Commons. To pre-empt this disciplinary process, Farage is stepping down immediately to let Clacton’s voters decide his fate.

“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” Farage said. “This will be a people versus the establishment by-election. I will fight to win.” Even if Farage secures victory in the upcoming by-election, parliamentary officials have confirmed the standards inquiry will likely resume its work once the electoral process concludes.

Farage’s announcement comes at a pivotal moment for Reform UK, the right-wing anti-immigration party that has shaken up Britain’s two-party political order in recent months. Though the party holds just 8 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, it has repeatedly outperformed both the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservative Party in national opinion polls, fueling speculation that Farage could even become Britain’s next prime minister following the next general election. Reform UK emerged as the clear winner of May’s local and regional elections, a result that triggered the internal ouster of sitting Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer by his own party.

Yet recent electoral trends have raised questions about the strength of Reform UK’s momentum: the party has now lost three consecutive special elections it had prioritized, a dip that many political analysts interpret as a possible sign of softening support. The most recent defeat came at the hands of Labour’s Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to be confirmed as Starmer’s successor as prime minister in the coming weeks. For a party whose rise has closely mirrored Donald Trump’s nationalist, anti-immigration political playbook, losing Farage as its figurehead would deal a devastating blow to its electoral ambitions. Farage has built the party’s base around tapping into voter anger over irregular migrant crossings of the English Channel, repeatedly framing the influx as an “invasion” – a framing critics argue stokes anti-migrant sentiment.