Kazakhstan strongman Nazarbayev heads for poll victory after record turnout

Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission (CEC) claimed a record turnout of over 95 percent in Sunday presidential polls almost certain to re-elect 74-year-old strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev. The country's Central Election Commission claimed a turnout rate of 95.11 percent after the last polling stations in the vast, steppe dominated republic closed at 1500 GMT. The marginalised opposition has not put forward any candidates for the election and Nazarbayev is standing against two candidates widely seen as pro-government figures. Nazarbayev has ruled the Central Asian country since before the breakup of the USSR in 1991. If he wins a new five-year term, he will be on course to reach three decades as leader. He cast his ballot to loud applause in the capital Astana, saying he was confident Kazakhstan's people would back his campaign. "I am sure Kazakhstan's people will vote primarily for the stable development of our state and the improvement of people's lives, as well as the stability of the state and in support of the policies the country has implemented under my leadership," Nazarbayev told journalists. "I am confident of this." - 'Civic duty' to vote - Many citizens standing in long, snaking queues at polling stations in the capital Astana and second city Almaty cited a "civic duty" to vote. Gulmira Bardygulova, a student in the country's largest city, Almaty, said she had voted for Nazarbayev to save the country from political turmoil. "Young people themselves understand their duty - nobody is forcing us to vote. We have seen revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, war in Ukraine. Nobody wants this future for Kazakhstan." Some, though, complained of having been pressured to turn out to vote by their employers. In Astana, one voter who refused to give her name but said she worked as a clerk complained everybody in her office had been rung up by a line manager and asked to vote. "Of course I voted for Nazarbayev," she said. "Who are the other two?" One of the candidates standing against Nazarbayev, Turgun Syzdykov, is a 68-year-old former provincial official who has campaigned on an anti-globalisation platform, railing against Hollywood, hamburgers and computer games. He represents the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan. The other, Abelgazy Kusainov, 63, has held several important governmental positions and currently heads the national federation of trade unions. He is standing as an independent after running a campaign touching on Kazakhstan's environmental problems. Nazarbayev said he respected the campaigns of both his opponents and was prepared to work with them when the election is over. "This is not an election, it is a re-election," Dosym Saptaev, director of the Kazakhstan Risks Assessment Group, a think tank based in the largest city Almaty, told AFP. "The significance of the event is no more than the fact that it may well be Nazarbayev's last." - 'Institutional advantage' - An Ipsos MORI poll released Tuesday showed 91 percent of Kazakhstan's citizens are satisfied with Nazarbayev's rule. Economic issues have come to the forefront in recent months in Kazakhstan, which is the most prosperous of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states. Kazakhstan's domestic producers have been laying off workers as they struggle to compete with Russian imports made cheaper by the dramatic weakening of the sanctions-hit ruble. Kazakhstan banned a number of Russian foodstuffs in March and April, citing standards violations, and has also restricted imports of Russian fuel. Moscow, traditionally viewed as a strong ally of the republic, implemented tit-for-tat measures this month. Depressed prices for Kazakhstan's main export, crude oil, have created a headache for the government, with ratings agency Standard and Poor's downgrading the country's sovereign credit rating from BBB+ to BBB -- close to junk territory -- earlier this year. The strategic country, which borders both Russia and China, has never held an election deemed free and fair by international monitors. Nazarbayev claimed victory in the last presidential election, in 2011, with 95.5 percent of the vote. Sunday's ballot -- called a year ahead of schedule -- is the fifth he has contested. In its interim report on the vote, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) raised concerns about Nazarbayev's "institutional advantage". While Nazarbayev's posters and billboards were "visible throughout the country," the other two candidates have distributed "almost no campaign materials," the OSCE said. The OSCE sent almost 300 observers to the vote and will deliver their verdict on the vote on Monday. Over 9.5 million people in the ethnically diverse country were eligible to vote at over 9,000 polling stations across the country, according to the CEC.