d'oh:Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev made eight grammatical and other mistakes while taking the presidential oath at his inauguration ceremony in Astana on April 8, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Nazarbaev, 70, used incorrect conjunctive forms, incorrect case endings, and some words that sounded similar to the correct ones but have a different meaning. He also omitted the words "constitution" and "president" in just one sentence.
Nazarbaev was required to read aloud Chapter 42, Article 1, of the Kazakh Constitution, which states: "I solemnly swear to serve the people of Kazakhstan, to strictly follow the constitution and all other laws of Kazkahstan, to guarantee that citizens' rights and freedoms are respected, to fairly carry out all the duties I am obliged to fulfill as the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan."
According to the Kazakh Constitution, presidential candidates must be fluent in Kazakh. As a presidential candidate, Nazarbaev was required in February to take the state linguistic commission's Kazakh-language test.
previously: potential challengers to president nazarbayev excluded after
failing kazakh language test.
