NUR-SULTAN — Kazakhstan’s interim president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won the central Asian country’s presidential election with 70.96 percent of the vote, Xinhua news agency reported, based on the final results conducted by Central Election Commission (CEC) on Monday.
Final results of the presidential election showed Tokayev received 70.96 percent of the vote (6.53 million votes), while the opposition candidate Amirzhan Kosanov from the United National Patriotic Movement “Ult Tagdyry” won16.23 percent of the vote (1.49 million votes), according to Lyazzat Suleimen, a member of the CEC.
According to the constitution of Kazakhstan, a candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the votes shall be considered elected.
Seven candidates participated in the elections with a turnout of 77.4 percent.
Tokayev, 66, a career politician and diplomat, will succeed former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who in March resigned from his office and named Tokayev as interim leader. Nazarbayev had been the Kazakh president since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
–BERNAMA
