Kazakh leader wins another 5 years in snap polls
Source: Agencies |
April 4, 2011, Monday
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KAZAKHSTAN'S veteran President Nursultan Nazarbayev appeared set to win another five years in charge of his oil-rich Central Asian country yesterday in a snap election.
Nazarbayev is popular for making stability his main motto, overseeing market reforms and attracting more than US$120 billion in foreign investment. He even secured the vote of a rival candidate.
Nazarbayev, 70, has ruled Kazakhstan since Soviet days. He called yesterday's vote almost two years before his term had been due to end, rejecting a plan for a referendum to extend his reign unchallenged until 2020.
Living standards in Kazakhstan are higher than elsewhere in Central Asia, a volatile region bordering Afghanistan unsettled by poverty, ethnic tensions, radical Islam and the drug trade.
"Together we will vote for stability in our society, for friendship in our polyethnic nation, for our future and for the future of our children," Nazarbayev said after casting his vote in the national library yesterday.
"Today's vote of our citizens will stress our unity and our aspiration to implement everything that was mapped out in my state-of-the-nation address," he said, making clear he wanted to oversee an industrialization drive over the next decade to 2020.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, chaired last year by Kazakhstan, has stationed more than 300 election observers around the country. They issued a critical interim report ahead of the vote. Janez Lenarcic, director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said restrictions on the media and on freedom of expression were among the shortcomings.
"Efforts are being made by the authorities to make further progress in the area of democratic reforms, which currently seem to be lagging somewhat behind the achievements of Kazakhstan in economic and social development," Lenarcic said.
The fragmented opposition denounced the election as "the Nazarbayev show".
Their call to boycott the election fell on deaf ears. Nationwide turnout of 76.9 percent by 4pm yesterday local time had already marginally exceeded final turnout at the last presidential election in 2005. Polling stations closed at 8pm yesterday in western Kazakhstan. First official results are expected early today.
Nazarbayev is popular for making stability his main motto, overseeing market reforms and attracting more than US$120 billion in foreign investment. He even secured the vote of a rival candidate.
Nazarbayev, 70, has ruled Kazakhstan since Soviet days. He called yesterday's vote almost two years before his term had been due to end, rejecting a plan for a referendum to extend his reign unchallenged until 2020.
Living standards in Kazakhstan are higher than elsewhere in Central Asia, a volatile region bordering Afghanistan unsettled by poverty, ethnic tensions, radical Islam and the drug trade.
"Together we will vote for stability in our society, for friendship in our polyethnic nation, for our future and for the future of our children," Nazarbayev said after casting his vote in the national library yesterday.
"Today's vote of our citizens will stress our unity and our aspiration to implement everything that was mapped out in my state-of-the-nation address," he said, making clear he wanted to oversee an industrialization drive over the next decade to 2020.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, chaired last year by Kazakhstan, has stationed more than 300 election observers around the country. They issued a critical interim report ahead of the vote. Janez Lenarcic, director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said restrictions on the media and on freedom of expression were among the shortcomings.
"Efforts are being made by the authorities to make further progress in the area of democratic reforms, which currently seem to be lagging somewhat behind the achievements of Kazakhstan in economic and social development," Lenarcic said.
The fragmented opposition denounced the election as "the Nazarbayev show".
Their call to boycott the election fell on deaf ears. Nationwide turnout of 76.9 percent by 4pm yesterday local time had already marginally exceeded final turnout at the last presidential election in 2005. Polling stations closed at 8pm yesterday in western Kazakhstan. First official results are expected early today.
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