The president of Kazakhstan, Kasim Yomart Tokayev, has won the presidential elections held this Sunday with 81.31 percent of the votes, according to preliminary data.
Tokayev would have won almost 6.5 million votes, 81.31 percent, the chairman of Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission, Nurlan Abdirov, has reported, Kazinform news portal has reported.
The rest of the candidates have not exceeded four percent of the votes, as anticipated by a study published by the International Institute for Regional Studies.
The next candidate with the most votes would be Zhiguli Dairabayev (3.42 percent), followed by Karakat Abden (2.60 percent), Meiram Kayiken (2.53 percent), Nurlan Auyesbayev (2.22 percent) and Saltanat Tursinbekova (2.12 percent). 5.8 percent voted blank.
Voter turnout in the presidential elections has reached 69.44 percent, the Central Election Commission has reported.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Tokayev on his election victory and stressed that «he has received a convincing mandate of confidence from his fellow citizens, which opens up new opportunities for the implementation of the development path he promotes.»
«Strategic partnership and alliance relations between our countries, founded on the good traditions of friendship, neighborliness and mutual respect, are developing very successfully. We will continue to work to expand them further,» he said in his telegram to the Kazakh president, published on the Kremlin’s website.
Tokayev came to power in 2019 — with 70.96 percent of the vote — and is now aiming for a seven-year presidential term following the constitutional amendment increasing the presidential term from two to five years.
Kazakhstan faces a reform process following a major wave of protests over rising fuel prices in early 2022 that were violently suppressed and eventually contained with the deployment of a Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) contingent.
