Kazakhstan election: President Nursultan Nazarbayev apologises for 97.7 per cent win

'If I had interfered, I would have looked undemocratic, right?' Nazarbayev said

The Kazakh President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, at a rally in honour of his victory in Astana (EPA)

Kazakhstan’s long-serving President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has apologised. Not for ruling with an iron grip, but for winning re-election with 97.7 per cent of the vote, saying it would have “looked undemocratic” for him to intervene to make his victory more modest.

His victory on Sunday gives another five-year term to the 74-year-old former steelworker, who has ruled the oil-producing nation since rising to the post of its Soviet-era Communist Party boss in 1989. Central Election Commission data showed turnout was 95.22 per cent.

Television showed a triumphant Mr Nazarbayev smiling and greeting thousands of jubilant supporters at what officials called “the victor’s forum”, held in a spacious stadium in the capital, Astana.

“Kazakhstan has shown its political culture to the entire world,” he told his supporters. At a later news conference, he said: “I apologise that for super-democratic states, such figures are unacceptable. But I could do nothing. If I had interfered, I would have looked undemocratic, right?”

Mr Nazarbayev is lionised by compliant state media and is officially known as “Leader of the Nation”. He is permitted by law to run as often as he wishes. Most of his vocal opponents have either been jailed or have fled abroad. The only other contenders in the election were a low-profile Communist Party member and a loyal former regional governor. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said in an election observation report that there was a lack of a credible opposition: “Voters were not offered a genuine choice between political alternatives,” it said. Mr Nazarbayev has promoted market reforms and attracted billions in foreign direct investment, turning his nation of 17 million into the second-largest economy in the former Soviet Union.

The multi-ethnic, mainly Muslim country is stable, in a region troubled by ethnic violence from Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan. Mr Nazarbayev has promoted “a multi-vector policy”, building good ties with neighbouring Russia and China as well as the United States and the European Union.

But the economy has been hurt in the past year by the decline in global energy prices and by economic difficulty in Russia, hit by Western sanctions over Ukraine.

The election was called more than a year before Mr Nazarbayev’s term was due to end, averting the risk that another year of economic pain could develop into a more serious challenge to his leadership. It also puts the question of a possible successor, an important issue for investors, off the table for now. Kazakhstan has been criticised by the West and human rights bodies for crackdowns on dissent. No election held there has yet been given a clean bill of health by monitors.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping promptly congratulated Mr Nazarbayev on his re-election.

Reuters