Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev Wins Re-election With 91% of Vote

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev won re-election with 91 percent of the vote in yesterday's elections, keeping him in power through 2012 as the former Soviet state plans to almost triple oil production.

Zharmahan Tuyakbai, head of the main opposition group For a Just Kazakhstan, was Nazarbayev's closet rival, winning 6.6 percent, the Astana-based Central Electoral Committee said, citing preliminary results. An exit poll forecast Nazarbayev would get 78 percent. The Organization for Security and Cooperation will give its assessment today.

Nazarbayev, 65, who has been running the Central Asian nation since 1989, campaigned to fight corruption, increase social spending and boost incomes in the 57-percent Muslim country where Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and other foreign oil producers have invested billions of dollars.

``It's a victory for stability in a difficult part of the world, but it's not much of an advance in pluralism for Kazakhstan's political system,'' said Michael Heath, an analyst at Moscow-based Aton Capital Group. ``It's now important what the international community says about the vote.''

About 77 percent of the nation's 8.8 million eligible voters cast ballots. Kazakhstan has a population of 15.1 million.

Nazarbayev was forecast to win 77.7 percent of the vote in an exit poll carried out by the Almaty-based Kazakhstan Institute of Social-Economic Information and Forecasts, or Kiseif. The poll showed that Tuyakbai would garner about 13.4 percent of the vote.

Nazarbayev, with another seven years in power, will oversee an increase oil production and plans to bring Kazakhstan's state-owned assets to market, including oil company KazMunaiGaz. Kazakhstan plans to produce about 3.5 million barrels a day by 2015, up from about 1.2 million a day last year.

OSCE Monitoring

About 450 observers from the OSCE, Council of Europe and European Parliament monitored the elections and will present their today at 4 p.m. local time. Their positive opinion is important for Nazarbayev, who is seeking to boost his image abroad and gain the OSCE chairmanship in 2009.

Nazarbayev's election campaign has dominated the country, with opposition groups saying they can't book advertising space such as billboards, the OSCE said in a report covering the period Oct. 27-Nov. 16.

Kazakhstan canceled publishing contracts with seven opposition newspapers and five journalists have been arrested without explanation, Freedom House said in a statement last month.

``All candidates were granted equal conditions and all had equal access to media,'' Nazarbayev said yesterday as he voted, according to his Web site. ``We consider this vote special because they are being carried out in unprecedented democratic conditions.''

Revolutions

Kazakhstan borders Uzbekistan, where the government put down a rebellion in Andijan in May that led to the deaths of 187 people, and Kyrgyzstan, where a rigged vote earlier this year led to a revolution that toppled the nation's decade-long ruler.

Kazakhstan has never held a free and fair election during Nazarbayev's rule, according to Freedom House.

Opposition leader Tuyakbai said last week he expected the government to falsify this vote.

U.S. President George W. Bush has made the promotion of democracy in the former Soviet region a priority and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza personally called on Nazarbayev to hold democratic elections during a visit in October.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Prince in Moscow at tprince2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Buckle at ebuckle@bloomberg.net.