![President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev [File photo: CGTN]](http://img2.zhytuku.meldingcloud.com/images/zhycms_chinaplus/20190319/b51187fe-9989-4cef-bf63-679a139d2162.jpg?x-oss-process=image/resize,w_650)
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation on Tuesday.
He made the announcement in a televised speech.
The speaker of the country’s senate, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will be an acting president until a new president is elected. The decision will take effect on March 20, local time.
The announcement comes just weeks after the ageing leader dismissed the country’s government. No reason has yet been given.
“I have taken the decision to refuse the mandate of the presidency,” Nazarbayev said in a speech broadcast on state television.
He remains president of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan and chairman of the Nur Otan Party.
Nazarbayev was elected president of the independent Republic of Kazakhstan in December 1991 and won four presidential elections after his first term. His term would end in 2020.
Nazarbayev, 78, graduated from the Highest Technical Educational Institution at the Karaganada Metallurgic Works. He has a doctoral degree in economics and was conferred an honorary doctoral degree by Peking University in 2002.
He has served as chairman of the Ministers’ Council of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, chairman of the Supreme Council of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, and president of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
