President Tokayev faces re-election

According to preliminary estimates, incumbent Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won the presidential election in Kazakhstan. According to estimates made on Sunday evening, the 69-year-old player is expected to receive about 82 percent of the vote.

Opinion polls before the election showed that Tokayev would clearly defeat the other five candidates. Nearly 12 million people were called to vote in the country bordering China and Russia.

Ten months after the bloody protests in January, Sunday’s vote was eagerly awaited. Election day was quiet, according to preliminary information from Kazakh security authorities.

The election was originally scheduled for 2024. However, in September, the head of state announced the date of early elections.

International observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) plan to decide on the course of the elections on Monday. They had previously criticized restrictions on the registration of candidates and the lack of transparency in media ownership.

In March 2019, Tokayev overthrew his authoritarian predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan for nearly 30 years. The elections three years ago were accompanied by police brutality.

In January of this year, protests against high prices and social injustice in Kazakhstan turned into a political power struggle. At that time, Tokayev ordered the demonstrators to be fired, which he described as “terrorists”.

More than 200 people died in the protests and several thousand were arrested. Russia had sent troops to the neighboring country to suppress the protests.

After the unrest, Tokayev accepted the constitutional amendment and initiated the reforms. These include, among other things, a longer term of office of the President of seven years. It was only five years ago.