Overwhelming majority of Kazakhs living in Tajikistan vote for Nazarbayev

DUSHANBE, April 4, 2011, Asia-Plus  - The overwhelming majority of Kazakh nationals living in Tajikistan have voted for the incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the early presidential elections that took place in Kazakhstan on April 3, according to the Kazakh Embassy.

“In Tajikistan, 150 people, including employees of the Embassy and their families as well as Kazakh students studying at Tajik universities and Kazakh entrepreneurs that were in Tajikistan this time, cast ballots in the elections,” said the source.

According to him, a polling station was opened at the Kazakh Embassy in Dushanbe and a mobile ballot box was used in Khujand, the capital of Sughd province.  “The voter turnout at the polling station opened at the Embassy made 99.4 percent and according to the preliminary data, the overwhelming majority of votes were cast for the incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev,” the source added.

In the meantime, Kazakh news agency, KAZINFORM, reported on April 3 that Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission Chairman Kuandyk Turgankulov has said at a briefing in Astana that voter turnout of the presidential elections in Kazakhstan made 89.9 percent. 

Under Kazakhstan’s Constitutions, presidential elections were supposed to be held in 2012, but Kazakhstan saw the early presidential elections this month.  A relevant decree was signed by the head of state, Nursultan Nazarbayev.  This decision is alternative to a referendum that was suggested to extend his current term in office until 2020.