Section III The President Article 40

1. The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall be the head of state, its highest official determining the main directions of the domestic and foreign policy of the state and representing Kazakhstan within the country and in international relations. 2. The President of the Republic shall be the symbol and guarantor of the unity of the people and the state power, inviolability of the Constitution, rights and freedoms of an individual and citizen. 3. The President of the Republic shall ensure by his arbitration concerted functioning of all branches of state power and responsibility of the institutions of power before the people.

Article 41

1. The President of the Republic shall be elected by universal, equal and direct suffrage under a secret ballot for a seven-year term in accordance with the constitutional law by the citizens of the Republic who have come of age. 2. A citizen of the Republic shall be eligible for the office of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan if he is by birth not younger than forty and has a perfect command of the state language and has lived in Kazakhstan for not less than fifteen years. 3. Regular elections of the President of the Republic shall be held on the first Sunday of December and shall not coincide with the election of a new Parliament of the Republic. 4. The candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the votes of the constituents that took part in the election shall be deemed elected. If none of the candidates receives the above number of votes, a second round of elections shall be held between the two candidates who obtained the largest number of votes. The candidate who receives the larger number of votes of the constituents who take part in the second round of elections shall be deemed elected.

Article 42

1. The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall take office from the moment of swearing to the people the following oath: "I solemnly swear that I will faithfully serve the people of Kazakhstan, strictly observe the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, guarantee the rights and freedoms of the citizens, honestly perform the high duties of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan entrusted to me." 2. The oath shall be taken on the second Wednesday of January in a ceremonial atmosphere in the presence of the deputies of Parliament, the members of the Constitutional Council, the judges of the Supreme Court as well as all former Presidents of the Republic. In case, stipulated by Article 48 of the Constitution, the oath shall be taken by a person who has taken the powers of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan within one month since taking the powers of the President of the Republic. 3. The powers of the President of the Republic shall terminate from the moment the newly elected President of the Republic takes office as well as in the case of premature release from office, resignation or death. All former Presidents of the Republic except those who were discharged from office shall have the title of ex-President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 4. One and the same person may not be elected the President of the Republic more than two times in a row.