Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has announced he is steeping down, 29 years after taking office.
He in speech broadcast on state Television, he said he is refusing the mandate to continue as President.
“I have taken the decision to refuse the mandate of the presidency,” he said.
Nazarbayev came to power when the country was under the Soviet republic.
The decision comes weeks after he also dismissed the country’s government and a year after he made himself lifelong head of the country’s security council.
Nazarbayev who won re-election in 2015 with almost 98 percent of the vote was widely expected to seek another term in 2020.