Kazakhstan’s current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has comfortably won Sunday’s early presidential election in Central Asia’s largest country, preliminary results show today.
The 69-year-old head of state, who came to power in 2019, won with 81.31% of the vote, according to preliminary information from the Central Electoral Commission.
Of the nearly 12 million registered voters, 69.44%, or about 8.3 million, indicated the same data.
These early elections were designed to confirm Kassym-Jomart Tokaev in power, preventing any appearances on the part of the main opponents. Voters could only choose between the current leader and five candidates with no projection or credibility and who received no more than 3.42% of the vote.
In January 2022, Tokayev, who gave the order to “shoot to kill” at protesters, causing at least 238 deaths, presented himself in this election as a promoter of renewal and national harmony.
These elections are the culmination of a year of great social unrest in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, rich in natural resources and originally born of deep social inequality. Now this former diplomat vows to work for a “new Kazakhstan”, fairer and less corrupt.
With this goal in mind, he removed the powerful clan of the influential ex-president Nursultan Nazarbaiev from the decision-making areas and consolidated his position.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have already complained that recommendations “regarding fundamental freedoms and the conditions of eligibility and registration of candidates” have not been followed.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which sent a mission to the Central Asian country, regretted the absence of the opposition during the election process.
None of the other candidates “really challenged the program of the president,” who ran and showed a “complete lack of pluralism,” according to an OSCE statement.
Congratulations from Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s victory. “He received a convincing vote of confidence from his compatriots,” Putin, quoted in a Kremlin communiqué, told the re-elected president, assuring that the “strategic partnership” and alliance between Astana and Moscow is “progressing with remarkable success” . .
“I wish you, dear Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, success, good health and prosperity,” added Vladimir Putin.
The Kazakh government, Moscow’s traditional ally, received help in January from a Russian military contingent sent to Kazakhstan when the economic capital, Almaty, was rocked by violent unrest.
Despite this decisive help, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ran away from Moscow after the Kremlin offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
Tokayev, who came to power after Nazarbayev’s surprise resignation in March 2019, initially admitted to pursuing a policy of continuity with his predecessor and mentor before breaking with the all-powerful former president after the bloody month of January.
In a demonstration of the instability that still reigns in the Asian country, authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of seven supporters of an exiled opponent, accused of involvement in planning a “coup d’état”.
Source: DN
