Kazakhstan's President Kasim-Yomart Tokayev has secured a new term to complete his program of political and economic reforms in the largest and most prosperous of the Central Asian former Soviet republics. According to the preliminary results, released this Monday by the Electoral Commission, Tokáyev won the presidential elections last Sunday with 81.31% of the votes.
As expected, his five rivals could only act as troupes. With the Kazakh elite watching to see if the changes promised by the new leader will bring the era of his predecessor and former mentor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to a definitive end, and with the opposition rolling out for decades, little-known candidates were fielding in the election.
In fact, second place went to the "Against All" option, a protest vote that the Kazakh electoral law has recovered on this occasion, with 5.8% of the vote.
Then there were Zhigulí Dairabáyev, representative of the Auil patriotic party (with 3.42%); Karakat Abden, candidate of the Alliance of Social Workers (2.6%); the trade unionist Meiram Kazhiken (2.53%); Nurlán Auesbáyev, from the National Social Democratic Party (2.22%); and the defender of women's rights Saltanat Tursinbekova (2.12%).
Kazakhstan has 20 million inhabitants. Of these, 12 million have the right to vote, but only 8.3 did, which yields a participation of 69.44%.
Tokáyev will continue to lead Kazakhstan for a single seven-year term, as stated in one of the reforms to the Constitution that he himself has promoted.
69-year-old Kasim-Yomart Tokáyev received power in 2019 from Nursultán Nazarbáyev, who resigned after 30 years as head of the country. Nazarbayev reserved, however, key springs of power and his family continued to have great influence.
The violent riots of last January, which left more than 230 dead, changed the scenario. After Kazakhstan's worst crisis since independence, Tokayev began to accelerate reforms.
He withdrew Nazarbayev's privileges, expelled several members of his family from their posts, and the authorities detained close associates. The protests, which began as economic demands, spread to large cities in the form of violent riots. Authorities have suggested that some members of Nazarbayev's family may be involved.
Tokayev has vowed to put an "end to the economic monopoly on power." Before the vote he said that "these elections open a new era and the main institutions of power will be reformed."
Despite the distance from his successor, Nazarbáyev showed his support for Tokáyev before the elections. And then he was the first to congratulate him. "This victory demonstrates his great authority as head of state and is indisputable proof of the people's unwavering faith in his great reforms and new initiatives," he said Monday.
Strengthened in the interior, Tokáyev has also marked distances this year with Russia, his main ally and regional leader. At the start of the armed conflict in Ukraine, he refused to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (RPL) People's Republics as independent states, as Moscow had done. And on several occasions he has positioned himself in favor of the territorial integrity of states.
