YEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. The members of the Senate (upper house) of the Kazakh parliament have elected Dariga Nazarbaeyva as their Chair, TASS reported.

According to the country’s laws, the president nominates one of the senate members for chair, who is elected by senators through a secret ballot. All the 44 senators present at the session voted in Nazarbayeva’s favor.

On March 20 Kazakh Senate Speaker Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was sworn in as president following a resignation announcement Nursultan Nazarbayev had made on March 19. Nazarbayev said in his address to the country’s people that he would remain head of the Kazakh Security Council and leader of the Nur Otan party, as well as member of the Constitutional Council.

Nazarbayev became Kazakhstan’s first president in 1990 and was elected president in a nationwide election in 1991.