ASTANA, Kazakhstan: The 74-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev has been re-elected as the President of Kazakhstan after he secured 97.7 percent votes in the presidential election held on Sunday.
In its report issued by the Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission, the election body said that Nazarbayev secured a fifth consecutive five-year term in the presidential polls which witnessed a record 95.22 percent turnout.
Nazarbayev had never a serious challenge as only two other low-profile candidates took in the Sunday’s president elections – the leader of the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan Turgun Syzdykov and the head of the national federation of trade unions Abelgazy Kusainov.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has been Kazakhstan’s president since December 1991 when he was elected as the country’s first president following its independence from the Soviet Union.
The sixth presidential election in Kazakhstan was scheduled to be held across the country in 2016; however, it was conducted a year earlier than scheduled.
The decision to hold an early election came after advisory body Kazakhstan People’s Assembly said that the president required “a new mandate of people’s trust to ensure the country can withstand the period of global hardship.”
