Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was set to renew his 26-year grip on power yesterday, offering the multiethnic Central Asian state economic and social stability in return for what rights groups call systematic suppression of opposition.
Nazarbayev, 74, officially titled “Leader of the Nation,” called presidential elections more than a year early in a move that could quash any speculation about a successor. He faces no real challenge from the other contenders, a low-profile Communist Party functionary and a loyal former regional governor.
Upbeat and smiling, the former steelworker appeared confident of his landslide win as he voted in his futuristic capital, Astana. “I am confident ... Kazakhs will vote for stability in our state, to support the policy which the country has so far been following under my leadership,” he told reporters after casting his ballot at polling station No. 81 in central Astana.
Photo: Reuters
“I am confident people will vote for their future and the future of their children, for our flourishing Kazakhstan.”
Nazarbayev has promoted market reforms and, with the help of more than US$200 billion in foreign direct investment, turned his nation into the second-largest economy in the former Soviet Union and the biggest former Soviet oil producer after Russia.
As the vote started at 7am, queues for ballots formed quickly at the polling station in the cavernous Schoolchildren’s Palace, where Nazarbayev voted later.
“I voted for our beloved Nazarbayev, of course,” 68-year-old pensioner Vera Kalinina said. “He gave us everything — pensions, free medications, we have food. What else do we need? God give him good health.”
Stable in a region that has been troubled by ethnic violence and includes Afghanistan, Kazakhstan has been criticized by the West and human rights bodies for crackdowns on dissent. No Kazakh election yet has been given a clean bill of health by monitors.
Most of Nazarbayev’s critics have either been jailed or fled the country.
The biggest challenge to his authority has been a riot in the western oil town of Zhanaozen and a nearby village in 2011 where police opened fire, killing at least 15 people.
As of noon, 41.69 percent of Kazakhstan’s 9.5 million eligible voters had cast their ballots, the Central Election Commission said. Voting was set to at 8pm local time.
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