The president of Kazakhstan, Kasim Yomart Tokayev, has won re-election after winning the elections held on Sunday with more than 81 percent of the votes, according to the final data published on Tuesday by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), which confirmed that the president will be sworn in on November 26.
The CEC has detailed that Toyakev has won 81.31 percent of the ballots, while no other candidate has reached 3.5 percent of the support. Thus, Zhiguli Dairabayev has come second with 3.42 percent of the votes, while Karakat Abden, Meiram Kazhiken, Nurlan Auesbayev and Saltanat Tursinbekova are below three percent.
Nurlan Abdirov, the chairman of the organization, detailed that the turnout was 69.44 percent, while 5.8 percent of voters cast blank ballots, as reported by the Kazakh news portal Kazinform. Thus, the preliminary results announced on Monday were ratified, with no significant variations.
Abdirov further stated that «the CEC has registered Kasim Yomart Tokayev, elected by the people, as president of Kazakhstan and has handed over to the head of state, elected after the procedures established by the legislation, the corresponding certificate». «The president-elect will be sworn in on November 26,» he reiterated.
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.