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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Kazakhstan chooses new president |
| 2005-12-04 |
| The people of Kazakhstan have been voting in an election widely expected to return President Nursultan Nazarbayev for another seven-year term. Mr Nazarbayev has headed the Central Asian republic since independence. The other four contenders - all men - include the main opposition candidate, former governing party member Zharmakhan Tuyakbai. International observers have criticised previous elections in Kazakhstan as neither free nor fair. A survey by the US-based Intermedia Survey Institute suggested Mr Nazarbayev enjoyed 71% support, with none of his challengers getting above 2%. However, an opposition-ordered opinion poll claimed that Mr Nazarbayev was only narrowly ahead of Mr Tuyakbai - leading by 41.2% to 40.3%, the Associated Press news agency reported. The election is being seen as an important test of whether this vast oil-rich country is moving towards greater political openness, says the BBC's Ian MacWilliam in the capital, Astana. Hundreds of international observers have arrived to monitor the poll. Parliamentary elections last year were widely seen as rigged. Mr Tuyakbai, a former prosecutor general and parliamentary speaker, has said he expects the results of Sunday's election to be "fraudulent". The opposition has warned of street protests if the voting is unfair. However, analysts say Mr Nazarbayev is genuinely popular among voters. "He managed three things: real economic growth, inter-ethnic and inter-religious peace, and successful foreign policy," Dosym Satpayev, director of the Risk Assessment Group think tank, told the AFP news agency. Voters are in a more upbeat mood than they have been in many years, our correspondent says, as after more than a decade of post-Soviet drabness and depression, Kazakhstan is suddenly on the edge of a relative boom. Economic reforms and foreign investment in the country's huge oil reserves have brought a new prosperity which was almost unthinkable a few years ago, and while corruption is widespread, life is definitely getting better for many people, our correspondent adds. |
| Posted by:Steve White |