Nazarbayev leading in Kazakh polls
Foreign Desk Report

ASTANA (Kazakhstan)—Oil-rich Kazakhstan voted Sunday in a presidential election widely expected to give Nursultan Nazarbayev another seven-year term leading the most prosperous country in Central Asia. Nazarbayev is so confident of defeating his four challengers that he has scheduled a gathering with supporters at a sports complex in the capital Astana on Monday morning, just minutes after election officials plan to announce preliminary results. A pre-election opinion poll by the U.S.-based Intermedia Survey Institute reported that Nazarbayev had 71 percent support, but it cautioned that the responses “may reflect some wariness by respondents to express their true attitudes”. Nazarbayev, who has ruled for 16 years, often shows an authoritarian streak, and opposition candidates claim their campaigns have been hindered by the theft of campaign materials, seizure of newspapers backing them and denial of attractive sites to hold rallies. His two previous election victories were widely criticized as undemocratic. After voting Sunday in the capital Astana, Nazarbayev said “this year’s elections are being held in unprecedented democratic conditions”.