Kazakhstan Elects New Leader As Hundreds Arrested in Protests

• 06.10.2019, 09:44
•  Asia,  World

BBC

Kazakhstan has elected interim leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the hand-picked successor of long-term former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, with around 70 percent of the vote, exit polls showed.

The government-approved "Public Opinion" pollster on Sunday gave Tokayev, 66, a career diplomat and interim president, 70 percent of the vote while his closest rival Amirzhan Kosanov got 15 percent.

Preliminary results were expected early on Monday, Al Jazeera reports. 

The exit poll came as hundreds of people were arrested in rare protests in capital Nur-Sultan and the country's main commercial city, Almaty, in the Muslim-majority country.

The protesters were calling for a boycott of the snap election, which they allege was staged to put in office a politician loyal to Nazarbayev, who resigned in March.

The build-up to the vote saw an intensifying crackdown on the opposition with courts sentencing protesters to short stays in jail and police raiding activists' homes.

The interior ministry said around 500 people were arrested on Sunday, with deputy minister Marat Kozhayev blaming "radical elements" for holding "unsanctioned" rallies.

Protesters shouted "shame, shame, shame!" and said "police, come to the side of the people" as officers moved in on the crowd.

A number of journalists were also arrested, as was a representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee rights NGO. They were all later released.