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Kazakh security forces dragged away a participant in an opposition protest in the city of Almaty
Photo: PAVEL MIKHEYEV / REUTERS
In the parliamentary elections in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, as expected, a major victory for the ruling party Nur Otan is emerging.
Post-election polls saw the party at 71.9 percent on Sunday evening, as the state agency Kazinform reported.
In the last vote five years ago, Nur Otan had around 82 percent of the vote.
In addition, according to the report, only the Ak Schol (Shining Path) party and the People's Party of Kazakhstan make the leap over the seven percent hurdle into parliament.
Both are also considered loyal to the government.
The Social Democrats boycotted the vote.
Demonstrations against the authoritarian leadership
There were protests against the election in the metropolis of Almaty.
Several people have been temporarily arrested, according to reports by the Kazakh media.
The protesters are said to have called for a boycott of the vote.
President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev said when casting his vote at a polling station: "There is a protest mood in every country in the world."
Dozens of activists had already been arrested in the past few weeks.
After Tokayev's election in June 2019, there were protests against the authoritarian leadership in several cities of the ex-Soviet republic.
Hundreds of people were taken into police custody at the time.
The 67-year-old Tokayev had taken over from the long-term president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had retired after around 30 years in power.
Nazarbayev, however, still holds several influential offices and is still considered the most powerful man in the country.
In 2019, Tokayev renamed the capital Astana Nursultan in honor of his predecessor.
Nazarbayev's daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva ran again this time.
She had only been fired from the House of Lords last spring.
At times she was considered the most powerful woman in the country.
According to the Central Election Commission in Nursultan, the turnout of 63.3 percent was significantly lower than in the last election.
The first results of the count were expected on Monday night.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had already criticized violations of democratic standards in the parliamentary elections five years ago.
A new OSCE report states that fundamental freedoms protected in the constitution could be restricted by changes in the law.
OSCE observers have never classified an election in Kazakhstan as democratic.
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