Kazakhstan’s incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won in the presidential elections in the country. According to the preliminary data, he gathered 97.7% of the votes cast, the Central Electoral Commission announced.
of the votes cast, the Central Electoral Commission announced.The other presidential candidates, Turgun Syzdykov and Abelgazi Kusainov, gathered 1.6% and 0.7% of votes respectively.
The other presidential candidates, Turgun Syzdykov and Abelgazi Kusainov, gathered 1.6% and 0.7% of votes respectively.
The voter turnout in the election was 95.22%, Trend reports.
The final results of the presidential election will be announced by the CEC in no later than seven days, i.e. no later than May 3, according to the electoral law.
The Executive Director of the Political Science Center North-South, Yulia Yakusheva, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Nursultan Nazarbayev has outlined the main priorities of domestic policy in his electoral program. "First of all, we are talking about several institutional reforms, including those that involve changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. They are aimed at strengthening the individual institutions of power within the political system of Kazakhstan, and to increase the transparency of government. Civil service reform, which should improve the efficiency of government and at the same time create the conditions for economic development and entrepreneurial activity in particular, is very important too. Thus, there is a set of economic and political reforms in Kazakhstan," she explained.
"Another priority is a continuation of foreign policy, particularly Eurasian integration, and cooperation with the major foreign powers, which are reflected in the foreign policy concept of Kazakhstan until 2020," Yakusheva believes.
"And, of course, another important area for partners in Astana is Nazarbayev's mediation efforts in resolving the conflicts which occur in or are associated with the post-Soviet space. We know that Kazakhstan is an active mediator, an arbitrator in the decision of the Ukrainian crisis. And it is expected that Nazarbayev will continue to exert his efforts, perhaps even more actively," Yulia Yakusheva suggested.
Kazakh analyst Pyotr Svoik also has no doubt that during his fifth term as president Nursultan Nazarbayev will continue the policy of developing Eurasian integration.
With regard to domestic policy, in Svoik's opinion, the greatest interest is advanced by the president's "idea of constitutional reform with the transfer of the powers of the head of the state to parliament." "Until then, we have the Kazakhstan-2030 program published in the last century. Two years ago, the president issued a program until 2050. This time, Nazarbayev not only spoke about this, but he also announced a mechanism, saying that he is even going to create a national commission on modernization, which will start to work after the elections. This is something new," the analyst said.
According to the director of the EurAsEC Institute, Vladimir Lepekhin, the elections showed "the support of Nazarbayev's course by not only voters, but also the elites." "It showed that his position is fairly good. That is, he received an additional mandate to carry out his course," the expert said.
Stoik expects that during his new term the president of Kazakhstan will play a major role in the EEU. "Actually, he was informal leader anyway: this idea belongs to him, he made decisions, which were ahead of similar decisions taken in other EEU countries, primarily Russia. Now this course has received support, and I think we have to expect that the president will be more active in carrying out integration policy," Lepekhin said.
