Nazarbayev wins resounding victory in Kazakhstan election

Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev extended his 25-year rule over Central Asia's largest economy on Monday, winning more than 97 per cent of votes in an election where he faced no real competition.

The 74-year-old president has ruled oil-rich Kazakhstan since before its independence from the Soviet Union, but faces growing challenges from falling oil prices, recession in neighbouring Russia and the threat of Islamic extremism as western troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

Economic growth in Kazakhstan, which is the world's largest uranium producer and holds the world's 12th-largest oil reserves, will fall from 4.3 per cent in 2014 to just 1.5 per cent this year, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The election was held a year before Mr Nazarbayev's five-year term was due to end. Analysts interpreted the decision to hold an early election as a move to pre-empt questions over presidential authority as the country endures an economic downturn and questions over who will succeed Mr Nazarbayev grow ever louder.

"What is the real point of having these elections? We have seen this pantomime going on for 25 years," says Luca Anceschi, lecturer in Central Asian studies at the University of Glasgow, who adds that bringing forward the election represented a stalling tactic, "to make sure that when the presidential succession becomes inevitable, things are settled".

Russian president Vladimir Putin in a telegram on Monday congratulated Mr Nazarbayev on the election results, which he said "confirm the high authority which Nursultan Nazarbayev enjoys among Kazakh citizens".

In the elections on Sunday, 97.7 per cent of voters backed Mr Nazarbayev, with a turnout of 95.22 per cent of the electorate, according to provisional figures from the central election commission.

While Mr Nazarbayev undoubtedly enjoys high popularity among Kazakh citizens - he is nicknamed "papa" and has the official title of "elbasy" or leader of the nation - independent observers criticised the election as offering no real choice.

"The incumbent and his political party dominate politics, and there is a lack of a credible opposition in the country. Voters were not offered a genuine choice between political alternatives," said Cornelia Jonker, head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's election monitoring mission.

The OSCE noted that Mr Nazarbayev's two opponents were low-profile figures whose campaigns had gone unnoticed by large swaths of the population. It also criticised "significant restrictions to the freedom of expression".

Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan's foreign minister, told the Financial Times ahead of the election that it would be naive to expect the country to achieve a perfect, western-style democracy.

"We believe that election on election, the nature of our practice is improving," he said. "We believe we are moving in the right direction and our society is moving in the right direction."

Mr Nazarbayev said the elections indicated that Kazakh citizens approved of his government's policies, which include a $9bn economic stimulus programme unveiled last November that government officials have compared with then US president Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal.

"In my opinion, yesterday's election proved that people support the priorities in domestic and foreign policies. Therefore, we do not need to change them," Mr Nazarbayev said in comments carried by local news wires. "Kazakhs have once again demonstrated their solidarity and unity, which overcomes all obstacles in their path."

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation