Kazakhstan’s President Kasim Yomart Tokayev has confirmed forecasts and won Sunday’s presidential election with 82.45 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll published by official Kazakh media.
The International Institute for Regional Studies has published a study that forecasts a 68.7 percent turnout (more than 304,000 voters) and support below 4 percent for the rest of the candidates, according to Kazinform Kazakh portal.
The next candidate with the most votes would be Zhiguli Dairabayev (3.33 percent), followed by Karakat Abden (2.54 percent), Meiram Kayiken (2.23 percent), Nurlan Auyesbayev (2.17 percent) and Saltanat Tursinbekova (2.08 percent). 5.2 percent voted blank.
Tokayev came to power in 2019 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.
